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PREFACE. 


The  author  has  long  believed  that  a  new  system  of 
Political  Economy  is  urgently  needed.  The  old  system 
has  well  been  called  ^'  The  Dismal  Science."  It  is  the 
stamping-ground  of  selfishness,  ev^ery  man  to  get  as 
much  and  give  as  little  as  possible,  and  by  systematized 
heartlessness  to  work  out  an  industrial  millennium. 
The  statement  of  the  case  is  its  refutation.  Human 
brotherhood  must  have  a  place  in  any  science  which 
deals  with  humanity. 

It  is  refreshing  to  see  the  modern  Economics  becoming 
more  human  and  more  republican,  giving  large  place  to 
the  principles  of  co-operation.  By  so  doing  it  is  also 
becoming  more  Christian.  Its  highest  triumph  must  be 
to  incarnate  in  terms  of  material  science  those  sublime 
utterances  of  the  Son  of  Man  :  '*  One  is  your  Father, 
which  is  in  heaven,"  and  '^  All  ye  are  brethren."  That 
other  thought,  too,  must  be  brought  into  any  perfect 
system^  **  He  that  is  greatest,  let  him  be  your  servant :" 
— all  power  the  servitor  of  all  weakness — power  sweeter, 
nobler,  and  more  generous — weakness  happier,  purer, 
and  more  secure. 

As  part  of  this  great  problem  of  co-operation  or 
brotherhood,  the  question,  '*  What  shall  we  do  with 
the  liquor  traffic  ?''  comes  promptly  to  the  front.  From 
this  point  of  view  it  soon  ceases  to  be  a  question.     The 


11  PKEFACE. 

brother  cannot  destroy  the  brother.  It  is  not  republican 
to  debauch  the  citizen.  It  is  not  co-operative  to  de- 
grade the  fellow-laborer. 

The  relation  of  the  liquor  traffic  to  Economics  is  one 
which  the  masters  of  the  science  have  scarcely  begun  to 
touch.  The  case  is  much  like  that  of  a  generation  ago. 
When  slavery  was  rocking  the  continent  and  soon  to  del- 
uge it  in  blood,  Political  Economy  was  too  busy  to  dis- 
cuss a  theme  like  that.  But  when,  in  1858,  Eli  Thayer 
declared,  *'  Why,  sir,  we  can  buy  a  negro-power  in  a 
steam-engine  for  $10,  and  feed  and  clothe  that  power 
one  year  for  $5.  Are  we  the  men  to  pay  $1,000  for  a 
negro  slave,  and  $150  a  year  to  feed  and  clothe  him  ?" 
then  the  problem  was  nearing  its  solution.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  the  recent  emancipation  of  slaves  in 
Brazil  has  been  made  wholly  on  economic  grounds. 

So,  we  believe,  it  will  be  with  Prohibition.  When  all 
men  come  to  see  that  there  is  no  money  in  the  liquor  traffic, 
except  for  the  trafficker,  and  for  him  only  by  loss  to 
every  one  else,  a  tinal  end  will  bo  put  to  this  system  of 
organized  robbery. 

The  author  does  not  hope,  spite  of  most  careful  en- 
deavor, to  have  avoided  all  errors.  The  subject  is  vast. 
Cause  and  efifect  interlace.  At  some  points  it  is  impos- 
sible to  get  beyond  conjecture.  But  he  has  taken  great 
pains  to  secure  all  attainable  facts,  and  to  give  nothing 
which  is  not  fully  substantiated. 

This  book  is  written  for  **  the  plain  people,"  who  are 
the  bone  and  sinew  and  the  hope  of  the  land.  Hence  a 
conversational  has  been  preferred  to  a  formal  style,  seek- 
ing to  put  the  results  of  scholarship  into  common  speech. 
For  the  same  reason  round  numbers  have  been  used  in 
preference  to  complete  ones.     For  instance,  to  almost 


PUKFAfK.  Ill 


every  one  §50,000,000  conveys  a  more  intelligible  idea 
than  $49,100,590.  It  is  also  easier  to  remember. 
Hence,  for  the  purposes  of  a  popular  treatise  it  is  really 
more  accurate,  as  it  is  certainly  pleasanter  reading. 

The  author  gratefully  acknowledges  his  obligations  to 
Dr.  Hargreaves,  the  pioneer  in  this  line  of  study,  whose 
**  Wasted  Resources"  and  **  Worse  than  Wasted"  have 
been  frequently  quoted.  Much  material  has  been  taken 
from  The  Voice,  not  because  of  any  political  bias,  but 
because  on  many  points  no  such  complete  and  pains- 
taking collection  of  f-^^cts  was  to  be  found  elsewhere. 

The  book  is  sent  out  with  the  earnest  hope  that  it  may 
be  found  useful  in  building  up  a  single  department  of 
the  Economics  of  the  Future,  which  shall  seek  through 
the  laws  of  earthly  relationships  to  bring  all  humanity 
nearer  in  happiness  and  virtue  to  the  one  God,  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth.  May  it  also  help  toward  the 
speedy  removal  of  the  chief  fronting  evil  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, before  the  hearts  that  are  aching  shall  break,  and 
the  feet  that  are  tempted  shall  fall  ;  till  the  saloon's 
dread  shadow  shall  nevermore  darken  the  love-light  of 
home,  nor  dijii  the  brightness  of  childhood's  morning  ! 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/economicsofprohiOOfernrich 


CONTENTS. 


PAOK 

PREFACE, i 


CHAPTER  1. 

THE   ECONOMIC   ARGUMENT. 

President  White  and  Commercialism — The  Presidential  Election 
of  1888—"  The  Tariff  a  Friend  of  the  Liquor  Trade"— Re- 
newal of  the  Battle  of  1840— Prohibition  Will  Do  More 
than  Tariff  for  the  Wool  Interest— The  Tribute  Annually 
Levied  on  New  York  City  by  the  Saloons — How  Prohibition 
Will  Benefit  Every  Honest  Industry 9 

CHAPTER  II. 

PAYING   THE   PIPER. 

Cost  of  Liquor  to  the  Consumers  in  1889 — Annual  Increase — 
Indirect  Expense  Equals  Direct — Estimates  of  Crime, 
Pauperism,  Sickness,  Insanity,  etc. — Lost  Time  of  Liquor- 
Makers— Cost  of  Splendid  Saloons — Drink  Waste,  Two 
Thousand  Millions, .17 

CHAPTER  III. 

DOES   HIGH    LICENSE     PAY  ? 

It  Cannot  Possibly  Repay  the  Loss— National  and  State  Receipts 
from  the  Liquor  Traffic — Liquor  Receipts  and  Expenses  in 
Philadelphia  under  the  Brooks  Law — In  Ohio  under  the 
Dow  Law— In  Omaha  with  $1,000  License— Loss  of  Police 
Efficiency  —  Depreciation  of  Property  —  Sidewalks  and 
Saloons. .        .    32 


YX  CONTENTS. 

PAGX 

CHAPTER  IV. 

HIGH   LICENSE   AS   A   MONOPOLY. 

••  Taxing  it  to  Death" — Reducing  the  Number  of  Saloons — A 
Simple  Question  of  Arithmetic — The  Grocery  Problem — 
The  Sugar  Trust — A  Convention  of  Dentists— Mr.  Onahan's 
Figures  for  Chicago— Internal  Revenue  Reports  Show  More 
Liquor  Sold  by  Fewer  Saloons— The  Whiskey  Trust  Reduc- 
ing the  Number  of  Distilleries — Effect  on  the  Power  of  the 
Saloon  in  Politics— A  Tax  upon  the  Poor,     .        ,        ,        .    46 

CHAPTER  V. 

HIGH   LICENSE   AS   RESTRICTION. 

License-Paying  Saloon-Keepers  to  Enforce  the  Laws  against 
Illicit  Selling  —  Increased  Arrests  for  Drunkenness  in 
Chicago— Testimony  of  the  Chicago  Daily  News—l^ow  it 
"Abolishes  the  Dives"  in  Chicago — In  St.  Louis— Testimony 
of  the  St.  Louis  Republic — Fearful  Condition  of  Omaha- 
Testimony  of  Omaha  Daily  Bee — Police  Report* — Official 
Statement  of  the  Nebraska  Non-Partisan  Amendment 
League — Table  of  High-License  and  Low-License  Cities — 
High  License  in  St.  Paul— Philadelphia  under  the  "Brooks 
I^w"  — Pittsburgh's  700  "  S|x?ak-Easies"  — Why  More 
Drunkenness  in  Fewer  Saloons 60 

CHAPTER  VI. 

HIGH   LICENSE  AND  THE  CONSUMER. 

The  Consumer  Pays  the  Entire  Bill— Wealth-Producing  Quali- 
ties Destroyed— The  Workmen  of  Sheffield.  England— What 
the  National  Labor  Tnbiine  says— The  Consumer  as  the 
CoDSumee — Charles  Lamb's  Pathetic  Words— What  Oliver 
Ames  &  Son  Found— Mr.  Mifawl)er's  Wis^lom— $200,000 
for  a  Glass  of  Beer — English  Workingmen  and  Saloons— 
Baloons  and  the  Haymarkct  Maswicre— In  the  Cronin  Trial — 
The  Piper  to  Raise  his  Price 83 


CONTKN'TS.  VII 

PAUB 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    HARVEST   OF    DEATH. 

The  Duke  of  Alvah  and  the  "  Bloody  Council  "—The  Graves  of 
a  Host— The  Cash  Value  of  a  Man— Statistics  of  Mimico 
Industrial  School  on  the  Cost  of  Feeding  Boys— Price  of  a 
Negro  Slave — A  Man  Estimated  as  Capital  on  the  Basis  of 
What  he  Can  Earn— The  Saloon  Does  not  Pay  its  Own 
Funeral  Expenses— Whiskey  and  the  Inquisition — Have 
You  a  Boy  to  Spare  ? 95 

CHAPTER  Yin, 

A   STEP  TOWARD    PROHIBITION^. 

An  Unrighteous  Method  is  Sure  to  Prove  Unwise — The  Fewer 
Saloons  Have  Greatly  Increased  Power — Harder  to  Close 
the  Saloons  when  the  People  Have  Become  Used  to  Spending 
the  Money — The  Higher  the  License  for  the  Saloon  the 
Lower  the  Public  Sentiment  for  Prohibition — "  Free  Rum" 
and  the  Texas  Steer— Opinions  of  Nebraska  Clergymen — 
James  G.  Blaine  on  the  Tendency  of  Liquor  Revenues — A 
Step  that  Has  Never  Stepped — The  Old-Time  License  in 
Maine,  Michigan,  Iowa,  and  Kansas — Distillers  Atherton 
and  Her  on  "  The  True  Policy  for  the  Trade,"    .        .        .108 

CHAPTER  IX. 

LOCAL   OPTIOX. 

Advocated  as  Peculiarly  American — The  Principle  of  "Homo 
Rule" — Allowing  Prohibition  Wherever  Enforcement  is 
Possible— Obtainable  Sooner  than  State  or  National  Prohi- 
bition—Claimed to  be  Eminently  Successful  in  Practice — 
Objected  that  no  Community  Can  Have  the  Right  to 
Legalize  a  Wrong— Local  Option  in  Cincinnati— The  Ameri- 
can Idea  not  Piecemeal  but  Aggregate  Liberty — Squatter 
Sovereignty— Douglass  and  Lincoln— Surrendei-s  the  Centres 
of  Power— Always  in  Politics — Professor  Scomp  and  Mr. 
Johnson  on  Results  in  Georgia — Local  Option  for  the  Tariff 
and  the  Cholera, 123 


Ylll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X.  '^" 

SUPPLY   CREATES   DEMAND. 

The  Law  of  Luxuries  and  Vices— Dr.  Felix  L.  Oswald  on  the 
Natural  Aversion  for  Alcohol  among  all  Living  Things — 
Man  not  Excepted — Creating  an  Appetite — Experience  of  a 
Cincinnati  Merchant — How  the  Dealer  "Works  up  a 
Trade" — Why  the  Liquor  Men  Agitate  for  Repeal  of  Prohi- 
bition— Illicit  Sales  May  Supply  an  Existing  Demand — 
But  not  Create  a  New  One— The  Slander  of  *'  Wanting 
Whatever  is  Prohibited" — Testimony  of  * '  Nasby " — Rev. 
Edward  Ellis— The  Brooklyn  Eagle— The  National  Liquor 
Traffic  One  Vast  Organized  Temptation 137 

CHAPTER  XL. 

THE  TRUE    RESTRICTION. 

Difficulty  of  Restriction — The  Steady  Ratio  of  Income  and 
Intemperance — Prohibition  as  a  Restriction — The  Saloons  of 
Council  Bluffs— The  Clerk's  Drink  in  Kansas— The  Young 
Farmer  and  the  Closed  Saloon — The  Cities  in  a  State  of  Siege 
— Law  as  an  Educator— The  Dniggist  at  the  Telephone — 
Words  of  Judge  Pitman — No  Stocks  of  Liquor  Waiting — 
No  Saloon  Rent  Going  on  to  Prevent  Sunday-Closing- Then 
"  Local  Option"  Can  Pimish  the  Seller  in  the  Next  Town— 
"  Boot-Leggers"  Fight  Shy  of  Minors —"  The  Grandest 
Place  to  Bring  up  Boys,"       ,..,,,.  148 

CHAPTER  XIT. 

WHO  WILL  ENFORCE  THE   LAW  ? 

Enforcement  of  Laws  by  "  The  Citizen,  Male  or  Female" — The 
Private  Individual  as  Detective  and  Patrolman — Interference 
is  Trespass — What  Executive  Officers  Are  For — Usurping 
Legislative  Functions — American  Kings — Repeal  as  a 
Method  of  Enforcement — General  Grant  on  Enforcement- 
Enforcement  by  Representatives— Repeal  tlie  Non-Enforcing 


roxTEVTs.  IX 

TAtllS 

Officers — The  Wtitchmau  in  the  Mill — "  Euforcing  the  Laws 
We  Have" — The  Lending  Umbrella — The  Stronger  the  Law 
the  Easier  to  Enforce  it — How  Kansas  Disposes  of  Non- 
Enforcing  Olficers, 160 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MAINE. 

Nasby's"  Experience  with  the  "  Maine  Law" — The  Other 
Side — The  New  York  World  on  Non-Enforcement  in 
Lewiston — "A  Political  Pull"— Stealthy  Approach  toward 
Re-Submission— Put  on  the  Stripes— Testimony  of  Governor 
Dingley — Governor  Perham — Senator  Frye— Judge  Davis — 
Republican  Convention  of  1882  Internal  Revenue  Receipts 
Decreased  in  Maine  while  Increasing  in  the  Nation— Not  a 
Distillery  or  Brewery  in  the  State — The  Savings  Banks 
Full 171 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

KANSAS. 

Testimony  of  Probate  Judges—"  Drunkenness  Reduced  Ninety 
per  cent." — "The  Police  Force  Reduced" — "Growing  in 
Favor  Every  Year" — Testimony  of  County  Treasurers — 
Governor  Martin's  Address — Maynard's  "Truth  about 
Kansas" — "Joints"  and  How  to  Get  into  Them— How 
Leavenworth  is  "  Ruined"— Chief  Justice  Horton's  Testi- 
mony— "  The  Drunkard's  Paradise"— One  Hundred  and 
Fifty-three  Business  Men  Testify— The  Manufacture  of  Steel 
Cells  Ruined — The  Demand  for  Barrels  "Fallen  off  Ter- 
ribly" —  No  Wife-Beating  Now  —  Scarcity  of  Tramps— 
V;ews  of  Governor  Humphrey— Report  of  the  Farmers' 
Loan  and  Tnist  Company— The  Westej'n  Baptist  on  Topeka 
— Full  of  Churches  and  Not  One  Saloon— Families  Wh« 
Once  Suffered  through  the  Feather's  Intemi>erance  now 
"  Dwelling  in  a  Cosey  Home  of  Their  Own,"       .         .         .181 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAQK 

CHAPTER  XV. 

IOWA. 

Prohibitory  Amendment  Carried  by  Thirty  Thousand— Thrown 
Out  by  Supreme  Court— Prohibitory  Law  Passed— Always 
Liable  to  Ilepeal— Effects  of  the  Law— Letter  from  Governor 
Larrabee — Enforced  in  Eighty-five  Counties — Ev^aded  in 
Fifteen,  Chiefly  River  Counties— Great  Decrease  of  Crime — 
"  Has  Not  Injured  any  Business  Except  the  Saloon  Busi- 
ne-ss"— Opposing  Judges  Converted  to  the  Law  by  Observ- 
ing its  Effects — Testimony  of  Fifty-eight  Prosecuting 
Attorneys — Great  Decrease  of  Drunkenness— Often  Seventy- 
flve  to  Ninety  per  cent. — Former  Revenue  from  Saloons 
More  than  Made  Good  by  Increased  Prosperity— Merchants 
Now  Receive  the  Money  that  Formerly  Went  to  Saloons — 
The  Truth  about  the  Rebel  Cities— Burlington,  Dubuque, 
and  Davenport— Testimony  of  Judges  of  the  District 
Courts — Governor  Larrabee's  Farewell  Message — Governor 
Boies's  "Statistics  of  Ifs" — IIow  a  Lawyer  Got  Liquor  in 
Iowa — Governor  Boies's  Idea  of  ' '  Complete  Want  of  Legal 
Restraint" -The  State  Debt  Wiped  Out,       .        .        .        .232 


CHAPTER  XVT. 

RHODE   ISL.\XD. 

How  the  Amendment  was  Adopted— Immediate  Decrease  of 
Arrests  in  Providence— Drunkemiess  Decreased  One-half ; 
All  Crimes,  One  third— Why  the  Law  was  Hated — Mr. 
Walter  B.  Frost  Tells  of  Bank  Clearings  Increased  $32,000,- 
000— Savings  Bank  Deposits  Increjised  $0,000,000— Rise  in 
Value  of  Real  Estate— Enforcement  Shrewdly  Relaxed — 
Repeal  by  Surprise  and  Corruption — Non-Enforcement  of 
License— More  Drunken  Men  in  One  Week  than  in  Three 
Years  of  Prohibition— A  Quarter  of  a  ^lillion  Dollars  Goes 
Into  the  Saloons  of  Newport  that  Should  Go  to  the  Grocer 
and  Butcher  and  other  Respectable  Dealers,  .        .         .  206 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

ATLANTA. 

Low  License  Till  1886— Prohibition  One  Year  and  a  Half- 
Mayor  Hillyer's  Testimony — Decrease  of  Arrests  and  In- 
crease of  Trade — "  The  Attitude  of  the  Newspapers 
throughout  the  Union  is  Greatly  to  be  Deprecated" — Edi- 
torial of  the  Constitution — Property  Increased  $2,000,000 — 
Taxes  Not  Increased — Former  Saloons  Occupied  by  Trades- 
men—More Goods  Bought — Easier  to  Collect  Bills— More 
Children  in  Schools  and  Sunday-Schools,  and  Better  Dressed 
— Henry  W.  Grady's  Great  Speech — One  Distress  Warrant 
under  Prohibition  to  Twenty  under  License — No  More 
Garnisheeiug — Crime  Decretised  More  than  One-half — The 
Hand  of  the  National  Rum  Power — "Yellowstone  Kit" — 
Prohibition  Goes  out  and  High  License  Comes  in — Inter- 
views with  Business  Men  in  Atlanta  Commonwealth  Six 
Months  Later — Poor  Sales  and  Bad  Collections— Women 
Waiting  on  the  Corners  Saturday  Night — Arrests  Jump 
from  6000  to  10,000— Table  of  Replies  from  Forty-seven 
Business  jNIen — Bad  Debts  Increased — One  Saloon  Keeper 
Sells  More  to  Workingmen— "  They  Do  Not  Ask  for  Credit, 
but  Pay  as  They  Go" — Low  License,  Prohibition,  and  High 
License  Tested  on  the  Same  Ground  —  Prohibition  Im- 
measurably the  Best, 276 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    NEW    LANDS. 

Starting  Well— The  Dakotas  Reversing  the  Liquor  Victories  of 
the  East— Fifty  Thousand  Men  Pouring  into  Oklahoma  in 
Twenty-four  Hours— Without  Homes,  Without  Law,  With- 
out a  Magistrate— Without  Crime  Because  Without  Whiskey 
— Attempt  of  the  Liquor  Men  in  Congress  to  Put  the  New 
Territory  under  "the  Laws  of  Nebraska"— Speech  of 
Major  Pickler  against  it— Amendment  Defeated— Wliitc 
Men  Still  to  be  Treated  as  AVell  as  Indians,  ....  315 


XU  CONTEXTS. 

rAUK 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    LABORING    MEN. 

Average  Cost  of  a  Workingraan's  Drink — If  he  Drinks  Six 
Days,  he  Will  Drink  Seven— How  $1,000  is  Spent— Swal- 
lowing a  Square  Rod  of  Laud  at  Every  Drink — Where  One 
Workingman's  $10,000  Went— The  Cost  of  a  Saloon  Cele- 
bration of  Washington's  Birthday— Socialists  and  Saloons — 
Spending  the  Surplus — The  Child's  Hoop — The  School- 
Girl's  Hat— Helpless  in  a  Strike — The  Slaves  of  the  Saloon 
— Powderly  and  Arthur, 320 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    BEST   CUSTOMERS. 

A  Limit  to  the  Food  One  Man  Can  Eat  and  the  Clothes  One  Man 
Can  Put  on— Silk  Underwear  rs.  Red  Flannel — Sober 
Workingmen  Will  Outbuy  the  Saloon-Keep<T Thirty  to  One 
— The  Saloon  Destroys  the  Buying  Power  of  the  People,      .  339 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE   TRADESMEN. 

Trade  the  Life  of  Civilization— The  Money  Saved  from  the 
Drink  Bill  will  Circulate  through  all  Channels  of  Trade- 
Spent  in  Drink  it  Will  Not— Per  cent,  for  Labor  m  the 
Liquor  Business  Compared  with  Other  Industries— Liquors 
t».  Dry  Goods— One  Bartender  Can  Take  in  as  Much 
Money  as  a  Storeful  of  Drygoods  Clerks  in  the  Same 
Time — No  Other  Business  Can  Compete  with  the  Liquor 
Trade  and  Live— Other  Branches  of  Business  Trust— The 
Saloon  Sells  for  Cash— The  Bad  Debts  Are  Left  for  Grocer 
and  BoanlingHouse  KcciK-r — Put  Two  Thousand  Millions 
into  rs<?ful  Industries  and  See  What  Eflfect  it  Will  Have  on 
Trade— What  Prohibition  Did  for  One  Local  Option  Town,  348 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

PAUB 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE   FARMERS. 

The  Desolate  Farm — The  Accomplished  Hostler— Signing  the 
Farm  Away — "  It  Hurts  his  Judgment" — Cost  of  a  Bushel 
of  Corn— How  the  Liquor  Traffic  Robs  the  Farmer— It  De- 
stroys his  Market  —  "  The  Cider  Racket"— Judge  Agnew  on 
Cider — Amount  of  Alcohol  in  Cider  and  in  Beer — Danger  of 
Salicylic  Acid — Feed  and  Clothe  the  Drunkard,  and  the 
Farmer  Will  Get  the  Money, 358 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   HOME. 

The  Saloon  Makes  the  Man  a  Stranger  to  his  Home — What  he 
Spends  on  the  Saloon  he  Cannot  Spend  on  the  Home — 
Woman's  Responsibility — Poor  Feeding  Tends  to  Hard 
Drinking — Woman's  Wonderful  Patience — The  Wife-Beater 
on  Shipboard — Women  Drinking  at  Put-in-Bay— The  Beer- 
Garden's  Darkened  Stalls — Wine  Sauces  and  Jellies — The 
Bad  Manners  of  "  Good  Society," 378 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   NURSERY. 

The  Sure  Inheritance  of  Alcoholism— Pre-natal  Drunkenness — 
Beer  for  Nursing  Mothers— Cows  Fed  on  Beer  Mash— The 
Increased  Quantity  of  Milk  an  Addition  of  Alcohol  and 
Water — The  Danger  Greater  with  Wet  Nurse  than  with 
Mother — The  Doctor  and  the  Young  Mother— Giving  the 
Baby  Actual  Drams— How  to  Avoid  it,         ....  388 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

POLITICS. 

One  of  the  Greatest  Factors  in  Every  Life— The  Saloon  Now 
Has  Absolute  Mastery  of  Our  Politics— Testimony  of  the 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chicago  Times — Morality  the  Chief  Factor  iu  Politics  as  in 
the  Rise  and  Decline  of  Nations — Church  and  State — 
Government  Enforcing  the  Seventh  Commandment  in  Utah 
— Lincoln  against  Douglass  on  the  Moral  Wrong  of 
Slavery— D.  R.  Locke  Explains  "  The  Infernal  Part  which 
the  Liquor  Traffic  Plays  in  Politics,' 397 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE   PRESS. 

The  Daily  Paper  Forming  all  a  Man's  Thought— The  Eminent 
Lawyer — Simple  News  not  to  be  Found  in  a  Partisan 
Paper— Slander  as  a  Profession — Why  the  Prohibitionist 
Reads  Both  Sides— General  Palmer  on  the  Purchasable  Press 
—  How  Individual  Citizens  May  Block  that  Game— Dakota 
Prohibition  Victories  and  the  New  York  Press — Temper- 
ance Literature  as  a  Power, 408 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


THE  CHURCH. 


The  Christian  Church  an  Economic  Institution — Economics  of 
Moses— Of  Christ— Of  Pentecost — Of  Paul  and  James — Of 
the  Judgment  Day— James  Russell  Lowell's  "Parable" — Is 
the  Church  Doing  Anything  against  Intemperance  that  is 
Comparable  to  the  Magnitude  of  the  Curse  ?— Young  Men 
in  Dayton  Saloons — Church  Not  to  Do  Something,  but  to 
Do  Everything— Shall  the  Church  Spare  Wrong  as  Soon  as  it 
Goes  into  Politics— When  Christ  Confronted  an  Evil  Traffic,  418 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

CITIES   AND    IMMIGRANTS. 

One  fourth  of  Our  People  in  Citiea— The  Thinkers  and  Leaders 
Have  Given  Theui  up— Their  Evils  Admitted  to  Have 
•*  Come  to  Stay"— Power  of  Roughs  Vastly  Greater  in  City 
than   in  Country— The  Saloon  Drains  the  Country— Anar- 


CONTEXTS.  XV 

PAOB 

chizes  the  City— The  State  Must  Rule  the  City— The  Vicious 
Classes  Must  Submit— Tlie  Better  Classes  Must  be  Helped— 
Immigration  Must  be  Sifted— No  Sieve  Like  Prohibition- 
No  Foreign  Provinces,  Dialects,  or  Feuds  Wanted  in 
America— But  from  All  Nations  One  People,        .        .        .431 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE   devil's   foreign   MISSION. 

Fifty  Million  People  in  the  Congo  Basin  to  be  Clothed — State- 
ment of  Rev.  James  Johnson— No  More  Cloth  Wanted  by 
Natives — Drink  the  Article  in  Demand — Statement  of  Mr. 
W.  P.  Tisdel— Of  Mr.  Hornaday— An  English  Trading 
Company  Which  Trades  without  Dealing  in  Liquor — The 
Destruction  of  the  Natives  as  an  Economic  Question— Old 
Idea  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro— Better  Method  among  the 
Colonists  of  the  Northern  States  and  Canada — Killing  the 
Goose  that  Lays  the  Golden  Eggs— Course  Taken  by  Rome 
— By  the  Saracens — Rev.  Dr.  Sims — Natives  Seldom  Sober 
Enough  for  Service  Sunday  Morning— Ship  with  Two 
Missionaries  on  Deck  and  One  Hundred  Thousand  Gallons  of 
Rum  in  the  Hold— Gin  Out-Travels  the  Missionary— Stanley 
With  Rum  and  Without — Riches  of  the  Upper  Congo — 
Destroying  All  Trades  but  One— A  Native  Pastor  Finds  the 
Curse  of  Drink  Worse  than  that  of  Slavery — What  the 
United  States  Can  Do, 441 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   GATES   OF   PARADISE. 

The  Riches  of  Oklahoma— The  Profit  of  Our  Export  Trade— 
What  Our  Liquor  Money  Would  Buy— Flour  by  the  Million 
Barrels— Twenty  Million  Pounds  of  Buckwheat  Cakes — 
$150,000,000  Worth  of  Beef,  Mutton,  Pork,  and  Veal- 
Sugar  and  Spices,  Coffee  and  Tea,  Milk  and  Butter- 
All  Going  into  the  Homes  of  the  Hungry — Boots,  Shoes, 
and  Rubl)ers -Blankets  and  Carpets— Cassimeres,  Doeskins, 


XVI  COXTENTS. 

PA6R 

Diagonals,  and  Suitings — Three  Hundred  Thousand  Worsted 
Shawls— Thirty  Million  Yards  of  Dress  Goods— The  Poor 
Can  Go  to  Church— $45,000,000  Worth  of  Furniture— 
150,000,000  for  Anthracite  and  Bituminous  Coal— Will  Give 
the  Miners  Work— Will  Double  the  Pastors'  Salaries  and 
Missionary  Contributions— Will  Help  Literature  and  Edu- 
cation— A  Boom  in  Real  Estate— Women  Will  Have  Some 
Chance  to  "  Make  Home  Beautiful" — All  Who  Work  and 
All  Who  Trade  Will  Share  in  the  Prosperity— The  Two 
Thousand  Million  Revenue  of  Righteousness,       .        .        .  454 


CHAPTER  xkxL 

THE    **  ORIGINAL   PACJKAGE''   DECISION. 

Abraham  Lincoln  on  Supreme  Court  Decisions— The  Right  of 
Opposition— The  Demand  for  Reversal— Effects  of  the  De- 
cision in  Kansjis — Brewers  and  Box  Makers  in  Kansas  City, 
Mo.,  Rushed  with  Business— The  New  Border  Ruffian  Inva- 
sion— Topeka  Drunk  vs.  Topeka  Sober— Effects  in  Iowa — 
New  Statistics  of  the  Benefit  of  Prohibition— Prosperity  of 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  Compared— Liquor  Revenue  in  JVIjiino 
—United  States  District  Attorney  Ady's  Claim— All  Prohibi- 
tory Laws  "  Dead  Matter"  Now— The  Wilson  Law  Will  Not 
Bring  Them  to  Life— The  Police  Power  of  the  States  De- 
stroyed—Congress has  None  to  Take  Its  Place— Forcing 
Sales  Within  the  States — "Like  Any  Other  Commodity" — 
Slaves  Under  the  Dred  Scott  Decision — Supreme  Judge 
Elliott  of  Indiana  at  National  Bar  Association— This  De- 
cision Ignores  Moral  Considerations— Decision  of  "  Kansas 
Cases"  in  1887  to  the  Contrary— The  Outlook,     .        .        .476 


STATISTICAL    TABLES. 

Consumption  of  lutoxicants  in  1889, 18 

•Cost  of  Liquor  to  Consumers  in  1889 18 

Increased  Consumption  of  Liqu'ors  in  1889 18-19 

Jnmates  of  Cleveland  "Workhouse  Confessedly  Intemperate,    .        23 

'Indirect  Cost  of  the  Li(iuor  Traffic, 30 

Cost  of  Ohio  State  Institutions  for  Crime,  Pauperism,  Insanity, 

I      etc.,  and  Returns  from  the  Dow  Law, 37 

Ohio  County  Infirmaries, 38 

Chicago  Saloons  under  Low  and  High  License  (Mr.  Onahan),  .  48 
Increased  Consumption  of  Liquor  in  the  United  States  in  1888, 

with  Decrease  of  Liquor  Dealers, 51 

Same  in  1889,     ...  51 

Arrests  in  Omaha  for  1888 03 

Proportion  of  Arrests  for  Drunkenness  and  Disorderly  Conduct 

in  Fourteen  High  License  and  Fifteen  Low  License  Cities,  .     67 
Commitments  to  County  Prison,  etc.,  in  Philadelphia  in  1887 

and  1888, 75 

Arrests  in  Pittsburgh,  Allegheny,  Scranton,  Wilkesbarre,  Lan- 
caster, and  Reading,  in  1887  and  1888,  ....        76-78 
Cost  of  Feeding  Boys  at  Mimico  Industrial  School,  .        .      100 

Nebraska  Clergymen  on  High  License 112-116 

Probate  Judges  of  Ninety-Seven  Counties  of  Kansas  on  Effects 

of  Prohibition 184-193 

County  Treasurers  of  Kansas  on  Effects  of  Prohibition,  ,  206-213 
Prosecuting    Attorneys    of    Fifty-eight  Counties    of    Iowa  on 

Decrease  of  Crime, 240-247 

District  Judges  of  Iowa  on  Benefits  of  Prohibition,  .        252-255 

Business  Men  of  Atlanta  on  Trade  under  Prohibition  and  High 

License, 300-307 

How  an  income  of  $1000  would  be  expended  in  Massachusetts  in 

1883, 321 

Expenditures  of  100  "Workingmen  vs.  one  Saloon-keeper,  342-343 
How  the  Liquor  Traffic  Robs  the  Farmer,  ....  365-368 
Division  of   $800,000,000  among  Other  Industries  (Dr.    Har- 

greaves), 456 

Division  of  $900,000,000  among  Other  Industries  (Mr.  Calvin 

E.  Ktach) 457 


'UHIVBRSITr] 

ECONOMICS  OF  PROHIBITION, 


CHAPTEE  I. 


THE    ECONOMIC    ARGUMENT. 


"  I  will  undertake  to  give  bond  for  the  fulfilment  of  a  contract  that    ' 
if  the  city  of  Philadelphia  will  stop  selling  liquor,  and  give  me  as 
much  as  was  expended  for  liquor  last  year  to  run  the  city  next  year, 
I  will  pay  all  the  city  expenses,  no  one  shall  pay  taxes,  and  there 
shall  be  no  insurance  on  property,  and  a  good  suit  of  clothes  shall 
be  given  to  every  poor  man,  woman,  and  child,  and  a  barrel  of  flour  ; 
to  every  needy  and  worthy  person,  and  then  I  shall  make  a  half  million  y 
dollars  by  the  operation." — P.  T.  Barnum. 

President  White,  of  Cornell  Uniyersitj,  some  years 
ago  declared  *^  Commercialism"  the  prevailing  vice  of 
the  American  people,  using  this  striking  illustration  : 
'*  If,  for  instance,  it  should  be  made  to  appear  that  the 
spread  of  Mohammedanism  would  be  of  great  commer- 
cial advantage  to  one  of  our  great  cities — if  it  would 
lead  to  the  building  of  railroads  and  the  opening  of  new 
channels  of  profitable  trade  — enough  money  could  easily 
be  raised  to  build  a  mosque  equal  to  the  Taj  Mahal." 

We  have  recently  been  passing  through  a  battle  of 
"  Commercialism."  The  victorious  party  has  conquered 
on  a  simple  question  of  trade.  If  the  result  had  been  re- 
versed, and  the  Democratic  Party  had  conquered  instead 
of  the  Kepublican,  they  would  have  conquered  likewise 
on  a  question  of  trade — a  somewhat  different  view  of  the 


10  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

tariff  question.  It  would  have  been  a  victory  of  **  Com- 
mercialism" still.  By  both  Democrats  and  Kepublicans, 
all  other  questions  of  social  morality  and  good  govern- 
ment have  been  dropped  out  of  sight  for  the  tariff. 
Speakers  of  national  reputation  have  addressed  great 
audiences  by  the  hour,  and  from  first  to  last  discussed  ab- 
solutely nothing  but  tariff.  Metropolitan  dailies  have 
filled  their  columns  with  arguments  for  or  against  a  pro- 
tective tariff.  Anarchism,  and  the  reckless  immigration 
that  feeds  it,  the  spreading  leprosy  of  Mormonism — these 
have  liad  a  paragraph  in  some  corner.  Temperance  has 
received  an  occasional  pat  on  the  shoulder  or  an  occa- 
sional kick,  according  to  the  temper  of  the  publication. 
But  the  pat  or  the  kick  has  been  quite  incidental,  and 
without  turning  from  the  line  of  march  of  the  tariff  agi- 
tation. Wherever  yon  have  seen  a  group  of  men  in  ex- 
cited talk  you  could  tell,  while  out  of  hearing,  that  the 
tariff  was  the  theme. 

So,  with  firing  qf  guns  and  ringing  of  bells,  with  sound 
of  trumpet  and  the  cheers  of  millions,  we  have  come  to 
the  exact  economic  position  which  we  reached  forty-eight 
years  ago  !  The  half  century  intervening  has  been  one 
of  the  most  momentous  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Onr 
Union  preserved  through  four  years  of  war  ;  slavery  abol- 
ished from  our  own  and  at  last  from  all  civilized  na- 
tions ;  the  French  Empire  overthrown  ;  Italy  made  a 
nation  ;  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope  abolished  ;  Ger 
man  unity  made  victorious  ;  the  Irish  Question  shaking 
the  British  Empire  ;  the  Congo  discovered  and  the  great 
heart  of  tlie  Dark  Continent  opened  to  civilization  ;  and 
the  United  States  of  America  have  made  a  countermarch 
upon  antiquity,  and  got  just  where  they  were  in  1840  ! 

Whatever  influences  moved  President  Cleveland  to 


THE    ECON'O-MIC    AllGUMF.XT.  11 

precipitate  this  discussion  in  the  first  place,  unquestion- 
ably the  liquor  traffic  has  been  one  main  agent  in  keeping 
it  at  the  front.  The  New  York  Bar  said,  on  December 
30th,  1887  :  ''  The  tariff  is,  therefore,  a  friend  of  the 
[liquor]  trade,  and  all  should  lend  themselves  to  stirring 
it  up.  While  politicians  have  their  hands  full  with  the 
tariff,  they  will  be  very  sure  to  let  everything  else  slide, 
and  Prohibition,  which  has  lately  been  making  so  much 
noise,  will  evaporate."  With  its  usual  Satanic  sagacity, 
the  liquor  traffic  saw  its  opportunity  : 

*  *  Like  the  bat  of  Indian  brakes, 
Her  pinions  fan  the  wound  she  makes, 
And  soothing  thus  the  dreamer's  pain, 
She  drinks  the  life-blood  from  the  vein." 

The  traffic  has  kept  the  great  wings  of  its  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  saloons  fanning  the  tariff,  and,  under 
cover  of  that  agitation,  has  gone  on  sucking  the  nation's 
life-blood  and  making  its  grip  more  immovable  and 
deadly.  So  successfully  has  this  been  done  that  thou- 
sands of  good  men,  temperance  men.  Christian  men, 
have  forgotten  in  the  storm  of  tariff  discussion  that  there 
was  any  temperance  question  before  the  nation.  They 
have  waived  out  of  sight  the  waste  of  treasure,  the  cor- 
ruption of  youth  and  destruction  of  manhood  through 
intemperance,  and  virtually  decided  that,  if  they  could 
have  the  tariff  as  they  wanted  it,  the  liquor  traffic  might 
do  what  it  pleased.  Even  Prohibitionists  have  fallen 
jnto  the  snare,  and  in  groceries  and  offices  and  street-cars 
and  homes  have  talked  *'  Tariff,"  forgetting  their  own 
mightier  issue.  Thousands  of  them  have  even  **gone 
and  voted  "  one  of  the  old  party  tickets,  because  of  the 
feeling  that  this  tariff  question  must  be  settled,  whatever 
became  of  Prohibition. 


12  EnOXOMICS    OF    P lion  TUITION. 

But,  as  our  shrewd  Josh  Billings  said,  ''  There's  no 
*iise  argyin'  agin'  success."  The  thing  has  worked  well 
for  one  set  of  managers.  The  Republicans  have  found 
a  Presidency  in  the  tariff,  and  the  Democrats  have  come 
near  enough  to  try  it  again.  The  event  has  proved  that 
the  most  successful  thing  for  any  party  is  to  touch  the 
pocket  nerve  of  the  American  people.  What  are  Pro- 
hibitionists to  do  about  it?  Why,  touch  the  pocket 
nerve  for  Prohibition  !  If  we  can  convince  the  Ameri- 
can people  that  liquor  selling  does  not  pay^  we  have  made 
our  case.  We  shall  be  on  ground  that  will  command  the 
Presidency  of  the  future.  The  nation  cannot  be  kept 
forever  lighting  the  battle  of  1840.  Prohibitionists  must 
array  the  Commercialism  of  America  on  the  side  of  Pro- 
hibition. We  must  show  the  people  that,  even  on  that 
ground,  we  have  all  the  argument,  and  hold  the  key  to 
the  national  prosperity. 

During  the  recent  campaign  a  Prohibitionist  was  argu- 
ing with  a  Republican  wool-buyer.  The  wool- buyer 
urged  with  utmost  confidence  the  necessity  of  a  high 
tariff  for  the  wool  interest.  The  Prohibitionist  was  try- 
i!ig  to  show  that,  perhaps,  it  did  not  matter  so  very  nmch. 
The  writer  asked  the  Republican  debater  this  question  ; 
**  Suppose  we  could  put  woollen  dresses,  and  jackets, 
and  stockings,  and  underwear  on  all  the  drunkards'  wives 
and  children,  and  woollen  blankets  on  all  their  beds, 
wouldn't  that  create  a  greater  boom  in  the  wool  interest 
than  any  tariff  that  could  be  levied  T'  '*  Why,  of 
coarse  it  would  !"  was  the  instant  reply,  '*  if  you  could 
only  get  all  the  people  to  think  so."  The  business  of 
Prohibitionists  must  be  to  '^  get  all  the  people  to  think 
so." 

One  great  influence  that  shook  down  slavery  was  that 


TlIK    i:<'ONOMIC    AlifJlMKXT.  13 

in  the  Border  States,  where  slave  labor  and  free  labor 
could  be  seen  side  by  side,  the  belief  had  come  widely  to 
prevail  that  slavery  wjis  unprofitable.  West  Virginia, 
East  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  contained  enough 
Anti-Slavery  men  to  make  those  sections  untenable 
ground  for  the  Southern  Confederacy.  If  we  can  cause 
a  similar  persuasion  to  prevail  regarding  the  liquor  traffic, 
we  can  shake  its  hold,  even  upon  the  great  centers  of  its 
power.  For  instance,  we  are  told  that  three-fourths  of 
the  8,000  saloons  in  New  York  City  are  kept  by  foreign- 
ers. The  saloons  of  the  United  States  average  a  yearly  in- 
come of  $7,000  each.''^  At  this  rate,  the  foreigners'  three- 
fourths  of  New  York's  saloons  take  in  more  than  $40,000,- 
000  every  year.  It  ought  not  to  be  a  very  hard  matter  to 
convince  the  level-headed  merchants  of  the  Metropolis 
that  it  does  not  pay  to  let  6,000  foreigners  levy  an  annual 
tribute  of  $40,000,000  upon  the  city.  They  will  see  it 
quickly  enough,  if  they  can  be  got  to  think  about  it. 
As  yet,  very  little  has  been  done  to  lead  them  to  con- 
sider the  temperance  question  upon  the  commercial  side. 
They  have  looked  upon  it  as  ''a  moral  issue,"  which 
*'  practical  men"  were  too  busy  to  attend  to. 

In  the  late  campaign  we  were  not  adequately  prepared 
to  contest  this  side  of  the  question.  We  have  been  ar- 
guing the  matter  for  so  many  years  on  moral  and  hu- 
manitarian considerations  that  we  could  not  change  front 
quickly  enough  to  meet  the  new  demand.  The  rush  of 
the  battle  went  by  us,  and  left  us  on  higher  but  deserted 
ground.  If  we  had  had  the  artillery  of  the  Economic 
Argument  well  in  hand,  we  might  have  gone  down  upon 


♦150,000   saloons  taking  $1,100,000,000  gives  $7,333  each.     This 
would  be,  however,  a  very  small  estimate  for  New  York  City. 


14  ECONOMirs   OF    PROHIBITION. 

tlie  commercial  level  wliere  tlie  other  parties  met,  and 
fought  the  most  tremendous  battle  we  have  ever  waged. 
We  could  have  forced  the  tariff-debaters  to  answer  us. 
We  could  have  convinced  thoughtful  men  of  the  old 
parties  how  much  more  important  Prohibition  is  than 
Tariff,  commercially,  and  so  have  rolled  up  a  mightier 
vote.     We  must  be  prepared  to  do  that  next  time. 

The  liquor  men  boast  of  having  sent  ^'  tons"  of  their 
literature  into  West  Virginia.  We  must  send  thousands 
of  tons  of  ours  throughout  the  land,  to  show  the  people 
what  splendid  prosperity  awaits  every  branch  of  trade 
the  moment  they  will  stop  the  $1,000,000,000  outlay  for 
intoxicants.  Our  debaters  should  be  full  to  the  brim 
with  economic  facts,  and  crowd  them  upon  the  thought 
of  the  nation. 

On  this  line  we  can  turn  the  flank  of  the  liquor  traffic, 
and  make  hostile  parties  change  their  front  of  battle. 
We  can  take  all  the  sneering  out  of  the  mouths  of  the 
enemy,  when  we  make  it  plain  to  the  thought  of  the 
common  people  that  the  prosperity  of  every  man,  wom- 
an, and  child  in  the  nation  is  touched  disastrously  by 
the  drink  traffic. 

The  temperance  battle  of  the  near  future  must  be 
fought  on  the  commercial  and  economic  ground.  Our 
strongest  thinkers,  our  ablest  writers,  must  force  the 
fighting  on  this  issue,  till  we  make  the  people  see  that  it 
is  worth  while  to  push  every  other  commercial  question 
into  the  background  long  enough  to  stop  this  intolerable 
drain  upon  the  national  prosperity.  We  have  all  the 
argument,  and  can  command  the  situation.  It  is  for  us 
to  convince  everybody  who  has  anything  to  sell,  North 
or  South,  East  or  West,  that  there  is  the  most  glorious 
advance  in  store  for  his  business  the  moment  we  can  stop 


THE    r.(OXOMU'    AUOUMENT.  15 

the  outlay  for  whiskey  and  beer.  Tell  the  lumbenncn 
of  Michigan  how  many  thousands  of  drinking  farmers 
will  shingle  their  houses  and  barns,  or  build  new  ones, 
as  soon  as  they  **quit  their  meanness,"  and  how  many 
thousands  of  houses  will  be  built  in  all  our  suburbs  for 
the  workingmen  when  none  of  them  drink  away  the 
money  that  might  pay  the  rent  or  buy  the  cottage. 
Show  the  shoe  manufacturers  of  Massachusetts  what  it 
means  to  take  all  the  bare  feet  of  dninkards'  children  off 
the  ground.  Let  the  iron  men  of  Pennsylvania  know  that 
new  stoves  will  be  at  once  needed  in  a  hundred  thousand 
homes  when  the  saloon-keeper  ceases  to  get  the  money. 
Tell  the  miners  they  will  have  work  all  winter  through, 
getting  coal  enough  to  put  into  those  stoves.  Tell  the 
cotton-planters  of  the  South  that  there  will  be  about  10,- 
000,000  new  calico  dresses  and  aprons  wanted  as  soon  as 
the  2,000,000  tipplers  cease  to  tipple,  and  go  home  with 
some  spare  change.  Let  the  ranchmen  of  Dakota  and 
New  Mexico,  and  Armour's  men  in  Chicago,  know  that 
there's  going  to  be  beef  on  thousands  of  tables  where 
now  are  a  few  cold  potatoes,  as  soon  as  we  can  carry 
Prohibition.  Tell  the  wool -growers  of  Ohio  that  every- 
body in  this  country  is  going  to  be  wrapped  in  woollen 
and  sleep  under  blankets  when  the  blizzards  blow  and 
the  thermometer  ranges  about  zero,  and  men  no  longer 
heat  up  with  liquid  fire  in  order  to  exterminate  their 
families  with  atmospheric  cold.  Tell  the  grocer  he  can 
sell  for  cash  and  say  good -by  to  bad  debts  when  the 
dimes  no  longer  go  into  the  saloon-till.  Tell  the  farmer 
there  is  going  to  be  an  unheard-of  demand  for  flour  and 
meal  and  butter  and  cheese  and  eggs  as  soon  as  the 
bloated  beer-holders  cease  fostering  that  industry,  and 
begin  filling  out  the  hollow  cheeks  of  wives  and  children 


10  ECONOMICS    OF    F'ROITIBTTTON". 

with  wliolesome  food.  Show  the  High  License  man 
liow  much  more  it  is  worth  in  cash  to  abolish  the  crime 
and  pauperism  which  the  saloon  produces  than  to  share 
the  profits  with  the  criminal  and  pauper  maker.  Tell 
our  colleges  that  the  temptation  of  our  young  men  will 
lienceforth  be  education  instead  of  intoxication.  Tell 
the  author,  editor,  and  publisher  that  good  books  and 
papers  are  going  to  be  owned  and  read  in  a  hundred 
homes,  where  now  a  single  greasy  copy  of  the  Police 
Gazette  is  thumbed  in  one  saloon.  And  tell  the  church 
that  tens  of  thousands  will  crowd  to  her  doors  as  soon 
as  they  can  come  clad  so  as  not  to  be  stared  at  ;  and  as, 
in  deliverance  from  hunger  and  cold,  blows  and  curses, 
from  the  desolate  davs  and  nights  of  fearful  watching: 
which  the  legalized  dram-shop  inflicts  on  the  innocent, 
they  shall  be  lifted  out  from  despair,  and  grasp  some 
tangible  evidence  that  a  beneficent  Providence  indeed 
rules  in  tbe  affairs  of  men,  and  that  for  them  the  Son  of 
God  is  manifested,  that  He  might  destroy  the  works  of 
the  devil. 

There's  not  an  honest  industry  nor  a  good  cause  in  all 
our  broad  domain  but  will  find  immediate  advance  and 
prosperity  in  the  wiping  out  of  the  liquor  traffic. 


CHAPTER    11. 

PAYING    THE    PIPER. 

^<  "  After  fifteen  years  on  the  bench  I  believe  four-fifths  of  all  crimes 
committed  are  the  result,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors.  Much  of  it  is  due  to  beer.  Three  or  four  glasses  of 
beer  cause  a  stupor,  which  is  conducive  to  the  condition  in  which  a 
crime  can  be  committed.  Nearly  all  homicide  and  felonious  assault 
and  battery  cases  are  the  result  of  drinking.  It  follows  that  three- 
fourths  of  the  exi^ense  to  the  State  for  the  prosecution  of  criminals 
is  attributed  to  the  same  cause.  It  also  fills  the  insane  asylums,  and 
causes  untold  misery  in  thousands  of  families.  What  family  has  es- 
caped ?  Scarce  a  family  in  the  State  but  has  lost  one  of  its  members 
or  a  near  relative.  If  you  had  seen  what  I  have  seen,  read  the 
thousands  of  letters  I  have  read,  you  would  know  why  I  stand  hero 
to  night  and  plead  for  Prohibition. " — Judajt  W)dte,  in  Address  at  Pitts- 
burg, May  2Slh,  1889. 

"  The  Chicago  Morning  News  estimates  that  more  than  4,000  saloons 
were  open  in  that  city  last  Sunday,  and  that  $75,000  must  have  been 
spent  for  wine,  spirits,  and  beer  during  that  one  day." — Sovihern 
Baptist  Herald. 

This  nation  has  been  wonderfully  stirred  of  late  over 
something  that  has  rarely  troubled  governments — a  sur- 
plus of  revenue.  Suppose  that  had  been  a  deficiency. 
Suppose  an  administration  in  four  years  of  power  had 
run  our  finances  $120,000,000  behindhand.  That  ad- 
ministration would  have  gone  down  as  Vulcan  fell  when 
Jupiter  hurled  him  from  Olympus.  There  would  not 
have  been  contest  enough  to  make  the  election  interest- 
ing.    What  shall  we  say,  then,  of  a  deficiency  almost 


18  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

ten  times  as  great  in  one  year  ?  For  we  have  passed  the 
Eleven  Hundred  Million  ]Notch  in  oar  expenditure  for 
intoxicants. 

From  the  preliminary  report  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue  of  the  United  States  for  the  year  1889, 
we  obtain  the  following  statistics  : 

WITHDRAWALS    FOR    CONSUMPTION    IN    1889. 

Fermented  liquors 25,119,853  barrels 

Distilled  spirits 77, 164, 640  gallons 

What  did  these  cost  the  consumer  ?  We  give  the  fig- 
ures according  to  Dr.  Hargreaves' s  estimates,  which  have 
stood  unchallenged  for  many  years.  To  the  distilled 
spirits  which  leave  the  warehouse  containing  fifty  per 
cent,  of  alcohol,  we  must  add  one-fifth  for  reduction  to 
forty  per  cent.,  the  ordinary  retail  strength,  making  the 
amount  at  retail  92,597,568  gallons.  This  at  $6  per 
gallon,  gives  the  following  : 

Cost  to  consumers $555,585,408 

Fermented  liquors  at  $20  per  barrel, 

Coat  to  consumers 502,397,060 

Add 

Imported  liquors 15,986,800 

California  wines 34,000,000 

Total $1,107,969,268 

which  the  intoxicating  liquors  consumed  in  the  United 
States  in  the  year  from  July  Ist,  1888,  to  June  30th, 
1889,  cost  the  consumers. 
The  increase  over  the  year  ending  June  30th,  1S8S, 


was  : 


Increase  of  distilled  spirits 5,599,154  gallons 

Increase  of  fermented  liquors 430,634  barrels 


PAYING   THE   PIPER.  19 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  table  is  provided  with  a  col- 
umn for  **  Decrease,"  but  that  is  titterly  hlank  ;  there 
is  not  a  figure  in  it.  Reducing  the  barrels  of  beer  to 
gallons,  at  31  gallons  to  the  barrel,  gives 


Fermented  liquors 13,628,654  gall 

Distilled  spirits 5,599,154       ' 


ons 


Total 19,227,808  gallons 

increase  of  distilled  and  fermented  liquors  in  1889  over 
1888.     Increased  cost  to  the  people,  $49,106,590. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  spending  for  in- 
toxicants more  than  $1,100,000,000,  and  increasing  the 
expenditure  at  the  rate  of  about  $50,000,000  a  year. 
What  nation  can  long  endure  such  a  drain  ?  How  can 
we  help  having  poverty  and  distress  ? 

The  immensity  of  the  outlay  can  be  seen  by  consider- 
ing the  further  fact  that  the  total  imports  of  the  United 
States  in  1888  were  but  §723,879,813,  and  the  customs 
duties  collected  on  the  same  were  only  $219,091,173. 

This  $1,100,000,000,  then,  is  the  cost  to  the  drinkers 
of  the  nation.  From  this  we  should  deduct,  according 
to  Mr.  E.  J.  Wheeler,*  $124,000,000  as  the  total  re- 
ceipts from  all  forms  of  tax  and  license  paid  by  the 
liquor  traffic  to  the  nation  and  the  States.  This  would 
bring  the  actual  cash  loss  to  the  nation  a  little  below 
$1,000,000,000.  But  the  selling  price  of  both  beer  and 
whiskey  is  estimated  so  low  in  the  above  table  that  we 
may  claim  the  benefit  of  the  margin,  and  safely  hold  the 
entire  loss  to  be  not  less  than  $1,000,000,000.  With 
the  rate  of  increase  given  above  of  $49,000,000  a  year, 
the  only  trouble  is  that  the  expense  will  be  apt  to  run 


*  "  Prohibition,  the  Principle,  the  Policy,  and  the  Party,"  p.  73. 


20  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

beyond  the  estimate  by  the  time  this  book  gets  fairly 
before  tlie  public.  It  will  soon  far  outrun  that  amount. 
(^^  A  thousand  million  dollars  in  a  single  year,  and  this 
going  on  steadily  year  after  year  !  It  would  have  bank- 
rupted the  Roman  Empire,  when  her  nobles  dined  lux- 
uriously on  peacocks'  brains.  It  would  have  bankrupted 
Spain,  when  the  wealth  of  the  New  World  was  pouring 
in  and  her  knights  shod  their  steeds  with  silver.  If  any 
foreign  power  were  to  demand  such  a  tribute,  we  would 
turn  this  whole  country  into  an  armed  camp,  and  put 
a  musket  into  the  hand  of  every  fourteenyear-old  boy 
sooner  than  pay  it.  But  we  patiently  hand  it  over  to 
t/  our  150,000  liquor  barons,  and  only  beg  them  to  have  a 
little  mercy,  and  give  us  a  rest  for  part  of  Sunday,  and 
from  midnight  to  daylight  on  other  days.  Even  that  we 
can't  get,  but  we  submit.  Oh,  patient  America  !  Where 
are  the  memories  of  Concord  and  Bunker  Hill  and  Get- 
tysburg ? 

Still,  this  estimate  only  touches  the  outer  edge  of  the 
deficit.  Every  man  who  drinks  loses  from  labor  a  stead- 
ily increasing  amount  of  time.  It  is  probable  that,  from 
first  to  last,  he  loses  an  amount  of  time  equal  to  the  cost 
of  his  drinks.  If  this  estimate  were  to  be  allowed,  it 
would  just  double  the  $1,000,000,000.  But  it  would 
probably  be  challenged,  and  be  thought  weakest  where 
it  is  strongest.  Men  would  be  cited  who  drink  hard  and 
work  hard  to  the  day  of  their  death.  But  they  die  in 
the  midst  of  their  strength,  and  the  loss  is  of  all  the  years 
they  might  have  lived.  If  the  hard  drinker  lives  much 
beyond  thirty,  infirmities,  sicknesses,  and  incapacity  in- 
crease rapidly  upon  him,  with  their  inevitable  loss  of 
working  time  and  power.  For  the  man  who  goes  on 
*'  sprees,"  there  will  be  days  of  lost  labor  from  a  few 


PAYING    THE    PIPER.  21 

hours'  debancli.  By  the  most  moderate  computation, 
which,  I  beheve,  has  not  been  challenged,  there  is  lost 
tlie  labor  of  700,000  drunkards,  amounting  to  $175, 000,- 
000,  and  enough  of  the  labor  of  2,000,000  tipplers  to 
make  about  $225,000,000— a  total  of  $400,000,000  every 
year. 

Then,  behind  every  idle  drinker  waits  a  procession  of 
men,  every  one  of  whom  has  to  stop  because  that  man's 
work  is  not  done.  The  drunken  shipmaster  does  not 
make  the  port  in  time.  The  drunken  drayman  does  not 
haul  up  the  goods  promptly.  The  drunken  porter  is  not 
on  hand  in  time  to  get  them  in,  and  every  clerk  and  ac- 
countant in  the  establishment  is  hindered  accordingly. 
The  mill  starts  late  because  the  engineer  was  on  a  spree 
last  night.  The  painter  cannot  paint  your  buggy  be- 
cause the  drunken  blacksmith  has  not  finished  the  iron 
work.  The  slaters  cannot  go  upon  your  roof  because  the 
drunken  carpenter  did  not  get  the  wood-work  done.  All 
over  the  land  are  sober  men  waiting  with  idle  hands  for 
drunken  men  to  bring  up  their  work  ahead  of  them.  At 
a  very  moderate  estimate,  we  may  count  this  indirect 
loss  by  sober  men  equal  to  one-tenth  the  direct  loss  of 
labor  by  drinking  men — §40,000,000  every  year. 

But  drinking  men  often  become  paupere,  or  pauperize 
those  dependent  upon  them.  Here  estimates  become 
difficult.  Mr.  Fred  H.  Wines,  in  the  compendium  of 
the  Tenth  Census  (1880),  says  :  ^'  It  is  almost,  if  not 
quite,  impossible  to  obtain  the  statistics  of  pauperism. " 

That,  however,  does  not  invalidate  wdiat  we  have,  but 
only  shows  us  that  our  ascertained  facts  will  be  sure  to 
fall  short  of  the  real  facts.  Sixty-seven  thousand  in- 
mates of  almshouses  were  reported  to  the  Census  Office 
in  1880.     Their  support,  by  the  average  of  many  insti- 


22  ECONOMICS   OF    PKOHIBITIOX. 

tutions,  may  be  put  at  $100  each  per  year,  making  a 
total  of  $6,700,000.  The  amomit  of  out-door  relief 
given  can  Jje  only  distantly  approximated.  In  the  State 
of  New  York,  where  the  cost  of  maintaining  paupers  in 
county  poor-houses  is  $^78,037.76,  the  out-door  relief 
given  in  the  same  counties  is  $498,866.10,  or  about  two- 
thirds.  Supposing  this  ratio  to  exist  throughout  the 
country,  that  would  give  $4-,466,666  for  out-door  relief. 
This  is  far  below  the  true  amount,  for  it  makes  no  ac- 
count of  private  charity  as  exercised  by  churches,  lodges, 
and  individuals,  which  would  mount  up  to  millions  more. 
It  does  not  count  the  support  of  the  army  of  tramps, 
commonly  estimated  at  3,000,000  persons,  when  they 
are  not  in  infirmaries  or  work-houses.  Yet  they  live, 
and  they  earn  but  a  very  small  fraction  of  their  own  liv- 
ing. Whether  by  begging  or  stealing,  their  support 
comes  out  of  the  community.  There  are  many  districts 
where  a  ceaseless  procession  of  them  levy  a  regular  trib- 
ute upon  the  farmers,  who  dare  not  refuse  for  fear  of 
vengeance  to  their  crops,  buildings,  or  families.  We 
give  up  in  despair  the  attempt  to  compute  these  extras, 
merely  mentioning  them  to  prevent  any  one  charging 
our  sum  total  as  excessive.  So  far  from  that,  vast  items 
are  necessarily  left  out.  It  is  worth  noting  here  that  al- 
most without  exception  the  tramp  is  a  drinker. 

The  report  of  the  work-house  at  Cleveland,  O.,  gives 
these  remarkable  statistics  : 

Habit  of  Life.  Malea.    Females.    Total. 

Ck>nfe88ed  themselves  intemperate..  1,906      319      2,225 
Claimed  to  be  temperate .     140         16  156 


Total 2,046      335       2,381 

Out  of  2,381  inmates  2,225  confessed  themselves  intern- 


PAYING   THE    PIPER.  23 

perate.  Only  156  '^  claimed  to  be  temperate,"  and  the 
officials  evidently  take  small  stock  in  that  *' claimed." 
True,  it  may  be  said  that  the  work-house  is  to  some  ex- 
tent a  penal  institution.  It  is  on  the  border-land  be- 
tween pauperism  and  crime,  but  its  inmates  are  just  the 
nuiterial  of  which  tramps  are  made,  and  its  figures  are  a 
pretty  good  barometer  for  the  whole  class.  If  ever  the 
cost  of  the  tramps  and  vagrants  can  be  ascertained,  it 
may  be  set  down  almost  solid  to  the  charge  of  intemper- 
ance. The  criminal  statistics  of  Prohibition  Iowa  for 
1887  report  just  one  vagrant.  In  omitting  a  guess  at 
unreported  pauperism,  we  are  making  a  large  concession 
to  the  safe  side. 

Adding  the  $4,466,666  of  estimated  out-door  relief  to 
the  §6,700,000  infirmary  expenses,  we  have  $11,166,666 
for  National  pauperism.  Dr.  Hargreaves  ascribes  nine- 
tenths  of  this  to  intemperance.  We  are  willing  to  put 
it  at  three-fourths.  It  hardly  can  be  less  than  that. 
For,  wbere  pauperism  is  ascribed  in  official  reports  to 
insanity,  idiocy,  and  disease,  these  very  things  are  large- 
ly the  results  of  intemperance  in  the  subjects,  or  inher- 
ited from  intemperate  parents.  .  Many  of  the  crippling 
injuries  are  received  because  either  the  sufferer  was 
drunk  or  somebody  else  was  ;  and  of  the  helpless  classes, 
a  very  large  number  would  not  be  thrown  on  public 
charity  except  that  intemperance  lias  made  their  natural 
protectors  unable  to  support  them.  Three- fourths,  then, 
of  the  total  $11,166,666  would  be  a  little  over  $8,000,- 
000,  which  we  may  take  as  a  thoroughly  safe  estimate  of 
the  pauperism  due  to  intemperance. 

Drinkers  often  become  criminals.  Here,  too,  ade- 
quate statistics  are  exceedingly  difficult  to  obtain.  Mr. 
Wines  says,  in  his  pamphlet  on  '^  Crime,  the  Convict 


24  ECONOMICS    Ol''    PKOHIBITION. 

and  the  Prison"  :  "  The  problem  involves  many  ele- 
ments, some  of  which  are  very  obscure."  He  takes  the 
number  of  inmates  of  prisons  and  reformatories,  as  given 
in  the  census  of  1880  at  70,000,  and  remarks  :  ^'  Assum- 
ing that  the  charge  for  keeping  up  the  prisons,  including 
buildings  and  repairs,  is  not  less  than  §200  a  year  for 
each  prisoner,  this  iteiTi  of  expense  will  amount  to  nearly 
or  quite  §15,000,000  annually."  He  adds  an  estimate 
of  the  cost  of  arrest  and  trial,  and  says  :  '^  These  three 
items,  taken  together,  constitute  the  enormous  sum  of 
$50,000,000  annually  raised  by  taxation  to  defend  the 
comnmnity  against  the  ravages  of  crime." 

Some  question  might  be  raised  about  institutions 
where  the  labor  of  prisoners  is  utilized,  so  that  they  are 
self-supporting.  These  are  chiefly  penitentiaries,  where 
the  prisoners  are  of  adult  age  and  sentenced  for  long 
terms.  In  jails  and  juvenile  reformatories  and  work- 
houses this  would  not  be  the  case.  Even  if  we  were  to 
allow  a  deduction  for  this,  it  would  probably  be  more 
than  compensated  by  the  fact  which  Mr.  Wines  states, 
that  liis  estimate  does  not  include  the  cost  of  the  private 
detective  force,  the  sums  paid  by  the  accused  to  their 
attorneys,  nor  the  losses  to  individuals  resulting  from 
successful  fraud  or  depredations.  So  we  may  allow  Mr. 
Wines's  §50,000,000  to  stand  as  a  reasonable  estimate 
of  the  national  outlay  for  crime.  Of  this,  many  esti- 
mate nine-tenths,  and  the  lowest  estimate  I  have  seen  is 
three-fourths,  as  due  to  intemperance. 

How  just  this  is  will  appear  from  a  few  citations.  Of 
8,588  arrests  in  Cleveland  for  the  year  1887,  4,720,  or 
more  than  one-half^  were  credited  to  ^*  Intoxication^'''^ 
pure  and  simple.  Adding  the  offences  usually  duo  to 
intemperance,  the  amount  runs  up  toward  eighty-eight 


PAYING   Till     PIPKR.  25 

per  cent.  Tliere  would,  of  course,  be  room  for  differ- 
ence of  opinion  here.  Not  all  the  cases  of  **  assault," 
etc.,  are  due  to  intemperance.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  many  offences  resulting  from  the  use  of  liquor, 
of  which  the  criminal  record  gives  no  sign.  The  clerk 
becomes  a  drinker,  then  a  gainbler,  robs  his  employer, 
and  is  arrested  for  "  theft"  or  **  embezzlement,"  with 
no  hint  of  the  intemperance,  without  which  he  would 
never  have  become  a  criminal.  The  late  D.  R.  Locke 
(Nasby)  states  that  numbers  of  boys  are  taught  to  steal  in 
the  beer  saloons  where  they  have  been  induced  to  run  up 
a  beer  bill,  and  are  put  in  communication  with  pawn- 
brokers who  will  receive  anything  they  bring  without 
asking  any  questions.  Arrests  from  this  cause  would  be 
credited  to  *'  petty  larceny."  On  the  scaffold,  it  has 
become  so  common  as  scarcely  to  excite  remark  for  the 
condemned  man  to  say,  "  But  for  whiskey  I  should 
never  have  been  here."  A  large  proportion  of  our  mur- 
ders are  committed  directly  in  saloons,  or  on  going  from 
them.  Yet  all  these  cases  appear  on  the  record  as 
*' murder,"  and  only  individual  inquiry  can  learn  that 
liquor  had  anything  to  do  with  them.  It  is  stated  in  a 
recent  number  of  the  National  Baptist^  that  *'  out  of 
45,000  criminals  arrested  in  Philadelphia  in  a  single  year, 
40,000  were  arrested  for  offences  immediately  connected 
with  liquor."  This  is  eighty-eight  per  cent.  On 
the  whole  we  are  much  more  in  danger  of  understating 
than  of  overstating  the  case.  Taking  this,  then,  as  a 
reasonable  estimate,  three- fourths  of  §50,000,000  would 
be  §37,500,000,  which  liquor-crime  costs  the  nation. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Mr.  "Wines  says  :  ''It  is  start- 
ling to  know  that,  of  50,000,000  inhabitants  (in  1880), 
over  400,000  are  either  insane,  idiots,  or  deaf  mutes,  or 


26  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION.     - 

are  inmates  of  prisons,  reformatories,  or  poor-houses. 
If  to  these  we  add  the  out-door  poor  and  the  inmates  of 
private  cliaritable  institutions,  the  amount  will  swell  to 
nearly  or  quite  500,000,  or  one  per  cent,  of  the  popula- 
tion." At  that  rate  the  number  would  now  be  about 
600,000.  But  we  will  keep  to  the  records  of  1880,  and 
consider  only  the  400,000  who  were  inmates  of  charita- 
ble institutions.  Of  that  number  the  70,000  who  were 
prisoners  and  the  67,000  who  were  paupers  have  been 
already  considered.  Those  deducted  would  leave  263,- 
000  "defective  persons."  Assuming  the  average 
cost  of  their  maintenance  to  be  $200  (and  in  many  of 
these  institutions  it  runs  up  to  nearly  $300  per  capita,  as 
skilled  teachers  and  physicians  must  be  employed  at 
great  expense),  the  cost  of  maintaining  these  "  defective 
persons"  would  exceed  $52,000,000.  If  we  estimate 
one-third  of  these  disabilities  to  be  due  to  intemperance, 
actual  or  inherited,  we  shall  have  $17, 000,000  annual  loss 
to  the  nation  from  the  insanity,  blindness,  deafness,  and 
other  disabilities  which  intemperance  produces.  The 
relation  of  insanity  to  intemperance  is  a  point  deserving 
careful  study.  State  and  National  Boards  are  now 
greatly  exercised  over  the  rapid  and  undeniable  increase 
of  insanity.  It  is  worthy  of  inquiry  whether  a  ratio  does 
not  exist  between  that  and  the  increased  consumption  of 
liquor  within  the  last  twenty  years.  We  see  plainly  that 
liquor  will  make  a  person  insane  for  a  little  while.  It 
would  seem  reasonable  to  suppose  that  enough  of  it  might 
make  him  so  permanently. 
J  Drink  produces  sickness.  A  careful  computation  gives 
about  150,000  persons  simultaneously  sick  in  the  United 
States,  as  the  result  of  using  intoxicants,  at  a  cost  of 
more   than    $50,000,000.      This  does  not    include  the 


PAYING    THE    IMPKK.  27 

number  who  are  sick,  because  some  one  else  uses  it — the 
women  and  children  starved,  chilled,  beaten,  heart- 
broken, crowded  into  filthy,  malarial  alleys  and  cellars, 
for  whom  simple  Prohibition  would  have  the  effect  of 
the  best  kind  of  fresh-air  fund  all  the  year  round.  The 
sickness  which  is  thus  the  indirect  result  of  intemperance 
is  at  least  equal  to  that  which  directly  results.  It  is 
probably  far  greater,  but  we  will  put  it  down  at  another 
$50,000,000— in  all,  $100,000,000. 

But  there  are  those  who  will  object,  ^*  You  are  not 
counting  the  receipts  from  this  industry.  The  liquor 
business  gives  employment  to  500,000  men,  including  all 
who  work  about  brewery,  distillery,  and  saloon."  But 
from  the  standpoint  of  political  economy  these  men 
produce  nothing.  No  addition  to  the  national  wealth 
comes  from  their  labor.  They  must  be  counted  and 
reasoned  about  simply  as  non -producers.  What  is  the 
reasoning  in  such  cases  ? 

When  Victor  Emmanuel  became  King  of  Italy  he 
found  a  host  of  monks  who  simply  did  nothing.  He 
confiscated  their  estates  and  sent  them  off,  because  Italy 
could  not  afford  to  support  them  in  idleness.  But  if  all 
our  liquor  men  would  turn  monks,  we  could  build  them 
splendid  monasteries  and  pension  them  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives  for  a  small  fraction  of  what  they  cost  us  while 
they  make  and  sell  liquor.  We  pity  the  European  na- 
tions with  their  great  standing  armies.  Where  is  the 
harm  ?  Those  soldiers  are  kept  busy.  They  work  hard 
at  their  endless  drill.  They  corrupt  nobody.  They 
harm  nobody.  The  answer  is,  it  doesn't  matter  how 
hard  they  work  so  long  as  nothing  comes  out  of  their 
working.  Other  men  earn  the  money  to  feed  and  clothe 
them,  and  get  nothing  in  return.     The  standing  armies 


i^K  ECOKOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

of  all  Europe  are  estimated  at  28,000,000,  including  the 
reserves,  and  their  cost  at  $600,000,000  annually.  The 
United  States  could  assume  the  support  of  that  tremen- 
dous armament,  jpay  the  entire  military  hill  of  all  Eu- 
rope out  of  our  cash  outlay  for  liquor,  and  still  have 
8400,000,000  to  spare  if  the  liquor  outlay  was  stopped. 
Can  we  afford  to  let  it  go  on  ?  It  would  be  a  yet  truer 
comparison  to  liken  these  liquor  employes  to  an  invading 
army  of  500,000  men.  If  they  were  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion to  burglary,  and  each  steal  $2,000  per  year,  and  one 
out  of  every  ten  kill  his  man  every  year — which  would  be 
unusually  prosperous  and  unusually  murderous  burglary 
— still  they  would  not  be  as  destructive  as  now.  For 
this  leaves  out  all  tlie  indirect  cost,  and  we  cannot  count 
less  than  60,000  deaths  from  intemperance  every  year, 
many  carrying  the  estimate  to  100,000. 

Hence,  so  far  from  counting  the  support  of  these 
liquor  employes  as  a  deduction  from  the  total  drink  cost, 
it  is  an  added  item — the  support  of  500,000  non-pro- 
ducers. Their  work  in  any  productive  industry,  at  a 
reasonable  average  for  all  grades  of  skill  employed,  would 
be  $300,000,000.  Tliey  would  add  at  least  that  much  to 
the  national  wealth,  which  is  now  a  dead  loss,  and  must 
be  carried  to  the  debit  side. 

What  fortunes  the  leaders  in  this  business  wring  out 
of  the  toiling  masses,  a  few  examples  will  show.  A 
Chicago  reporter  took  occasion  to  look  up  a  few  of  the 
palatial  drinking- places  of  that  city.  The  first,  which 
seemed  rich  and  fine  enough,  cost  $15,000.  '*  But,  in 
quest  of  still  finer  saloons,  the  reporter  went  into  one  a 
few  steps  away,  and  was  fairly  dazzled  by  the  glitter  of 
mirrors,  polished  brass,  and  stained-glass  screens,  with 
gaslights  placed  behind  to  show  off  their  beauties.     *  This 


PAYING    TITK    PIPER. 


cost  $44,000,'  said  the  proprietor,  '  and  if  you  don't  be- 
lieve it,  1  can  show  you  the  bills.  This  is  no  contract 
job  either.  I  said  to  the  man  who  fixed  it  up,  **  Go 
ahead  and  send  in  your  bills. "  '  This  establishment  is 
fitted  up  with  imported  English  oak  and  mahogany  wood. 
A  wide  fireplace  is  built  in  one  corner  of  Minton  tile  and 
polished  brass.  Wherever  a  window  can  be  put,  a  fan- 
ciful  design  in  stained  glass  is  placed,  and  a  half  dozen 
fine  oil  paintings  decorate  the  walls.  Across  the  street 
is  another  place  that  cost  $24,000.  It  is  fitted  with 
marble.  The  bar  mirrors  cost  $2,000,  and  the  screen  in 
front  of  the  entrance,  composed  of  massive  carved  wal- 
nut, with  a  mirror  and  clock,  cost  $1,400.  A  short  tour 
about  the  principal  streets  showed  that  there  were  a 
dozen  other  places  where  the  thirsty  pedestrian  can  satis- 
fy his  appetite  for  alcoholic  beverages  in  saloons  costing 
from  $20,000  to  $30,000  to  fit  up."  As  if  this  were  not 
enough,  New  York  has  one  saloon,  and  Indianapolis  has 
now  another,  where  silver  dollars  are  actually  used  to 
pave  the  floor.  Of  the  new  one  we  are  told  :  '^  The 
floor  is  laid  with  the  most  expensive  tiling,  and  160  silver 
dollars  just  from  the  mint  are  inlaid."  With  all  the 
poverty  and  distress  in  the  land,  our  workingmen  are 
actually  tramping  silver  dollars  under  foot  as  they  go  to 
get  their  drinks.  Is  it  any  wonder  there  should  be  hard 
times.?  What  can  the  best  tariff  legislation  do  to  put 
this  locked-up  money  in  circulation  ? 

Where  the  money  comes  from  may  be  seen  by  an  in- 
cident related  by  Mrs.  Foote,  of  the  Ohio  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  in  a  recent  address.  She 
said  :  "  1  went  into  the  home  of  a  man  who  works  in  the 
Cleveland  rolling-mills,  in  the  intolerable  heat  of  a  great 
furnace,  and  earns  $3  a  day.     It  was  a  wretched  home, 


30  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION'. 

with  uncarpeted  floor  and  broken  windows,  a  rickety  ta- 
ble and  a  few  damaged  chairs  for  furniture.  1  went  into 
the  pantry  to  get  something  for  the  sick  child  I  had 
come  to  see,  and  there  was  a  little  sugar  lying  on  a  small 
square  of  brown  paper,  a  little  tea  on  another,  a  bit  cf 
butter  on  one  of  the  wooden  plates  given  at  the  grocery 
stores.  There  was  not  a  dish  in  that  pantry  except  a 
little  handful  of  cracked  plates  and  cups  to  set  their 
miserable  table.  The  bedroom  was  wretched  past  de- 
scription. All  along  that  street  were  other  homes  to  all 
appearance  just  like  that  one."  When  there  are  Min- 
ton  tiles  in  the  saloon  there's  no  crockery  in  the  work- 
ingman's  pantry.  It  doesn't  matter  how  many  dollars 
he  earns,  if  they  go  to  pave  the  saloon  floor. 

Adding  these  various  items,  we  have  for  the  United 
States  the  following  bill  : 

Lost  labor  of  drunkards  and  tipplers $400,000,000 

Lost  labor  of  sober  men 40,000,000 

Pauperism 8,000,000 

Crime 37,500,000 

Insanity  and  disability 17.000.000 

Sickness 100.000,000 

Lost  labor  of  liquor-makers 300,000,000 

Total $902,500,000. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  estimates  are  almost  all 
based  on  the  census  of  1880.  At  that  time  the  direct 
cost  of  intoxicants,  as  estimated  by  Dr.  Ilargreaves,  was 
but  $733,816,495  fpr  the  year.  With  the  increase  in  the 
consumption  of  liquor  from  $734,000,000  to  $1,100,000,- 
000,  it  is  certain  that  these  indirect  losses  must  have  ad- 
vanced in  equal  proportion.  That  would  make  these 
items  amount  to  not  less  than  the  direct  cost  now,  or 
another  $1,100,000,000. 


PAYING    THK    PIPKR.  81 

We  will  call  it,  to  be  absolutely  on  the  safe  side 
$1,000,000,000,  or  just  the  net  cost  of  the  liquor  after 
deducting  receipts  from  tax  and  license.  This  makes  a 
grand  total  of  $2,000,000,000  annual  loss  to  the  nation 
from  the  liquor  traffic. 

We  came  out  of  our  Civil  War  with  a  debt  of  $2,800,- 
000,000,  and  we  thought  that  was  terrible.  Our  only 
consolation  was  that  it  had  saved  the  Union  and  set  free 
the  slaves.  Now,  in  a  time  of  profound  peace,  we  are 
sacrificing  every  eighteen  months  more  than  the  entire 
debt  of  the  Civil  War  in  maintaining  the  liquor  traffic, 
to  reduce  our  freeborn  men  to  a  slavery  more  hopeless 
than  that  of  Southern  plantations. 


CHAPTER   III. 


DOES    HIGH    LICENSE    PAY  5 


"  Four  new  distilleries  will  be  opened  in  Moore  County  in  a  few 
weeks.     This  will  boom  the  State.' ' — The  Memphis  Avalanche. 

*'  "We  Boom, — While  the  towns  about  us  have  been  bragging  of  their 
progress,  we  have  kept  quiet  and  got  in  our  work  without  kicking  up 
any  cloud  of  dust.  Brag  is  all  right  in  its  way,  but  we  don't  propose 
to  come  out  with  a  double-leaded,  scare-head  article  every  time  a 
citizen  hangs  a  new  front  gate.  Booms  are  good  enough  in  their  way, 
but  there  must  be  merit  behind  them.  With  no  disposition  to  claim 
this  as  the  only  growing  town  in  Arizona,  and  with  no  desire  to  kill 
the  growth  of  rival  towns,  we  humbly  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
since  January  Ist,  fourteen  new  saloons,  three  poker-rooms,  and  four 
retail  tobacco-stores  have  been  opened  in  the  place,  and  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  eighteen  men  are  engaged  in  building  a  jail  capable  of 
accommodating  thirty  prisoners.  Wo  have  done  all  this  without  any 
brag  or  bluster,  and  we  propose  to  keep  right  on  in  the  same  quiet 
fashion,  leaving  the  outside  world  to  judge  for  itself  as  to  where  it 
shall  seek  new  homes  and  invest  its  capital."  —  The  Arizona  Kicker. 

The  latest  statistics  carry  the  direct  cost  of  intoxicants 
to  $1,000,000,000  annually  for  the  United  States.  As 
the  indirect  cost  has  at  least  equalled  the  direct  in  time 
past,  it  is  probable  that  it  does  now,  though  we  have  no 
statistics  on  crime,  pauperism,  etc.,  later  than  ISSO. 
This  is  certainly  a  bad  showing.  But  can  we  not  make 
up  for  it  by  a  High  License  on  the  drink  traffic  ? 

Well,  there  is  one  thing  very  certain  to  start  with — 
we  cannot  make  it  all  tip.  We  cannot  get  back  the 
$1,000,000,000  cash  expenditure  by  any  license  we  can 
put  upon  the  trade,  because  that  would  be  to  require 


DOES   HIGH    LICENSE    PAY  .''  33 

distillers,  brewers,  and  saloon-keepers  to  do  bnsiness  for 
nothing,  and  give  in  the  materials  used  to  boot.  This  is 
not  only  too  great  a  stretch  of  benevolence  to  expect 
from  the  liquor  men,  but  a  financial  impossibility.  We 
shall  have  to  let  them  make  some  money  out  of  us,  if  we 
let  them  do  business  at  all.  But  all  they  make  out  of  us 
will  be  dead  loss  to  us,  because  what  we  buy  of  them 
does  us  no  earthly  good.  Then  whatever  money  we 
spend  for  liquor  drags  after  it,  dollar  for  dollar,  and 
million  for  million,  lost  time,  lost  labor,  crime,  pauper- 
ism, insanity,  doubling  the  liquor  expenditure  right 
along.  High  License,  which  cannot  repay  the  direct 
outlay  for  liquor  cannot  touch  the  indirect. 

If  any  community  could  ascertain  just  what  its  saloon- 
keepers are  making,  it  could  better  afford  to  lay  a  direct 
tax  upon  the  people  of  that  whole  amount  and  pay  it  to 
the  saloon-keepers  year  after  year  without  getting  any- 
thing in  return,  than  it  could  afford  to  spend  the  same 
money  at  their  bars  and  drink  their  liquor.  For  then 
the  community  would  save  the  whole  indii'ect  cost. 

You  would  say  of  any  workman  who  goes  on  a  Satur- 
day spree,  it  would  be  better  for  him  to  go  down  to  the 
river  and  throw  in  all  he  would  spend  in  the  saloon  and 
go  home  sober,  for  then  he  would  be  fit  for  something 
Monday  morning.  He  would  be  sure  not  to  get  into  the 
lock-up,  and  tolerably  safe  against  smashing  his  furni- 
ture, stabbing  his  wife,  or  beating  out  the  brains  of  his 
little  children.  The  same  is  true  of  a  community,  only 
more  surely  true,  for  while  one  drinking  man  may  chance 
to  avoid  crime,  out  of  a  thousand  men  a  certain  number 
will  commit  crime  while  under  the  influence  of  liquor  as 
surely  as  the  sun  will  rise.  By  paying  for  the  liquor 
and  not  drinking  it  we  could  save  all  that,  and  it  would 


84  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

be  cheaper.  It  would  pay  any  father  better — not  to 
speak  of  the  mother — to  buy  green  apples  at  the  highest 
market  price  and  throw  them  into  the  swill-pail  than  to 
let  his  boy  eat  them  for  nothing.  For  then  he  would 
save  the  wakeful  nights  and  the  doctor's  bill. 
/  It  would  pay  the  nation  to  buy  the  entire  liquor  prod- 
uct at  retail  prices  and  dump  it  into  the  two  seas  rather 
than  to  buy  it  at  the  same  price  and  swallow  it.  Poured 
into  the  ocean,  that  would  be  the  end  of  the  expense. 
Poured  into  the  people's  stomachs,  that  is  only  the  be- 
ginning, for  the  millions  for  lost  time,  lost  labor,  sick- 
ness, insanity,  pauperism,  and  crime  have  still  to  be  paid. 
Take,  now,  the  revenue  of  $98,000,000*  which  the  gen- 
eral Government  collects  from  the  liquor  traffic.  That 
-  is  very  nearly  $1  in  $10  of  the  people's  outlay.  There 
is  evidently  no  profit  in  that.  For  it  is  ^*  we,  the  peo- 
ple," who  are  the  Government,  and  '*  we,  the  people," 
who  are  spending  the  money.  It  is  *'  vve"  who  expend 
the  $1,000,000,000,  and  it  is  the  same  *'  we"  who  get 
back  the  $98,000,000.  That  cannot  pay.  The  whole 
nation  can  no  more  afford  to  do  business  at  an  outlay  of 
$10  for  $1  received  than  any  individual  can  afford  to  do 
business  at  the  same  rate.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  we 
are  rich  enough,  and  make  enough  in  other  ways  to  bear 
the  loss  for  a  good  while  to  come.  If  Wanamaker  were 
to  find  that  one  of  the  departments  of  his  great  store  was 
costing  him  $10  for  every  $1  received,  that  department 
would  be  promptly  closed  out.  It  would  not  satisfy  him 
that  the  other  departments  were  bringing  in  enough  to 
save  him  from  immediate  bankruptcy.      Such  a  drain 


*  This  amount  was  $92,630,384.89  in  1888,  but  increased  to  $98,. 
036,041.50  in  1889. 


DOES  HIGH   LICENSE   PAY?  35 

would  be  stopped  by  any  business  man  of  sense.  Why 
should  it  not  be  stopped  by  the  whole  people  if  they 
have  sense  ?  It  is  not  good  financiering  to  get  $98,000,- 
000  by  a  direct  expenditure  of  $1,000,000,000,  and  the 
indirect  loss  of  another  ,$1,000,000,000. 

The  only  real  answer  to  this  is,  that  the  money  would 
be  spent  anyway,  and  the  Government  may  as  well  get 
what  it  can  out  of  it.  We  have  no  very  great  respect 
for  this  argument.  We  cannot  see  how  it  differs  from 
the  saloon-keeper's  ^'  If  I  don't  sell  somebody  else  will, 
and  I  may  as  well  have  the  money."  But  we  are  not 
writirig  for  a  set  of  politicians,  hut  for  the  people.  The 
people  who  spend  this  $1,000,000,000  for  liquor  can  stop 
spending  it,  and  by  so  doing  stop  the  loss  of  the  other 
$1,000,000,000.  They  would  then  give  up  the  $98,- 
000,000  revenue.  But  would  that  not  be  the  best  in- 
vestment a  nation  ever  made — to  give  up  $98,000,000  in 
order  to  save  $2,000,000,000  ? 

The  argument  that  stopping  the  tax  would  not  stop 
the  consumption  of  liquor  does  not  apply  here,  for  our 
plan  is  to  stop  the  consumption  and  so,  of  course,  stop 
the  tax.  Let  the  people  vote  that  intoxicants  shall  not 
be  manufactured  or  sold  for  beverage.  Then  the  peo- 
ple could  richly  afford  to  resign  the  present  tax  on  their 
manufacture  and  use.  yrVnft^  p.ftrtnin  illioit  prodnctinn 
and  sale_jiiight  continue  for  some  time,\but  the  imme- 
cfiate  saving,  even  from  a  partial  enforcement  of  the 
law,  would  outnumber  by  hundreds  of  millions  the  tax 
that  would  be  given  up.  It  does  not  pay  the  nation  to 
keep  the  traffic  for  the  tax. 

Does  High  License  pay  the  States  ? 

The  Internal  Ke venue  Report  for  1889  gives  171,669 
jretail  dealers  in  both  distilled  and  malt  liquors.     There 


30  ECON^CMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

were  27,700  druggists  in  the  United  States  in  1880,  and 
of  course  a  larger  number  now.  Each  of  these  would  be 
classed  as  a  "  Retail  Liquor  Dealer"  in  the  Internal 
Revenue  Report.  If  we  deduct  these,  we  have  less 
than  150,000  saloon-keepers.  If  we  were  to  impose 
upon  them  a  license  of  $1,000  each  in  every  State,  as  is 
done  in  the  cities  of  Nebraska,  all  the  States  together 
would  collect  from  the  liquor  traffic  less  than  $150,000,- 
000.  All  the  States  together  would  spend  $2,000,000,- 
000.     Manifestly  that  could  not  pay. 

But  almost  all  that  are  called  High  License  States 
charge  a  less  rate  than  that,  about  $500 — as  in  Illinois 
and  Pennsylvania — being  thought  very  good.  This  can- 
not pay  them,  since  double  the  amount  could  not  pay, 
if  made  national  and  distributed  evenly  through  all 
the  States.  The  loss  would  be  distributed  as  evenly  and 
as  far. 

Let  us  take  the  case  of  Pennsylvania,  where  the  famed 
Brooks  Law  exists,  with  its  $500  license.  The  Pittsburg 
Tiinea  gives  the  total  collections  from  saloon  licenses  in 
the  State  for  1888  as  $1,837,860.  The  Voice  computes 
the  indirect  loss  on  the  basis  of  Dr.  Hargreaves's  estimates 
at  $76,000,000,  or  $40  loss  for  $1  received.  But  if  we 
take  the  entire  loss  direct  and  indirect  at  the  increased 
rate  since  Dr.  Hargreaves's  book  was  written,  Pennsyl- 
vania's loss  on  the  basis  of  population  would  be  now 
$160,000,000,  and  her  receipts  for  license  under  the 
Brooks  Law  would  be  $1  in  $88  of  the  total  cost  of  the 
drink  traffic. 

To  take  the  case  of  Piiiladelphia  alone,  ita  collections 
under  the  Brooks  Law  were  $673,500.  But  as  long  ago 
as  1870,  its  criminal  and  charitable  expenses  resulting 
from  intemperance    were    estimated    by   Prison   Agent 


DOES  HIGH   LICENSE   PAY?  87 

William  J.  Mullen  as  $2,500,000.  In  view  of  the  in- 
crease of  population,  it  will  be  a  very  moderate  esti- 
mate to  add  one-fourth  to  Mr.  Mullen's  figures,  making 
upward  of  $3,000,000  charitable  and  criminal  expenses 
now  due  to  intemperance,  for  which  the  saloon  kindly 
pays  about  $1  in  $5. 

What,  then,  becomes  of  the  claim  that  "  High  License 
reduces  taxation  ?" 

Ohio  has  a  *^  tax,"  so  called,  of  $250  on  every  saloon, 
under  what  is  known  as  the  Dow  Law.  At  every  elec- 
tion time,  farmers  and  tradesmen  are  solemnly  told,  ''  The 
Dow  Law  reduces  your  taxes."  With  many  persons  this 
single  idea  overrides  all  questions  of  humanity  or  moral- 
ity. If  *'  it  reduces  my  taxes,"  it  is  vain  for  the  minis- 
ter to  talk  of  moral  wrong,  or  for  the  reformer  to  grow 
eloquent  over  human  suffering.  The  hearts  of  their 
hearers  are  buttoned  up  as  tight  as  their  pocket-books  with 
the  thought,  "  it  reduces  my  taxes."  Well,  it  doesn't. 
So  you  can  afford  to  be  moral  and  human  beings  after  all. 

The  account  stands  thus  : 

State  Benevolent  InRtitutions  for  Insane,  Idi- 
otic, etc.,  not  including  Soldiers'  and  Sail- 
ors' Orphans'  Home $969,256 

Charge  one-third  of  this  to  intemperance 
(which  is  far  too  little) $323,085 

State  Penal  and  Reformatory  Institutions,  not 
including  County  Infirmaries $759,498 

Allow  nine-tenths  of  this  for  intemperance. .       613,550 

Total  due  to  intemperance $936,635 

State  proportion  of  Dow  Law  Tax,  one-fifth 
of  $2,225,000 $445,000. 

That  is,  the  Dow  Tax  pays  less  than  one-half  of  the 
State  expenses  due  to  intemperance. 


38  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

The  expenses  by  counties  show  the  same. 

For  County  Infirmaries  (which  in  such  a  State 
as  Ohio  may  be  set  down  solid  to  intemper- 
ance, the  exceptions  not  making  an  appreci- 
able difference) $685,765 

Out-door  relief,  78  counties  reporting 380,432 

Total $1,066,197. 

Dow  Tax  for  same 284,253. 

A  little  more  than  one- fourth. 

The  municipal  taxes  are  more  difficult  to  chase  down. 
Take,  as  a  specimen,  the  city  of  Cleveland,  which  may 
be  fairly  called  the  brightest,  fairest,  and  best-governed 
of  the  large  cities  of  Ohio  : 

Police  expenses  for  1887  were $257,501 

Amount  of  Dow  Tax  credited  in  Police  Account.    130,765. 

More  than  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  offences  for  which 
arrests  were  made  were  such  as  are  commonly  due  to  in- 
temperance— more  than  one-half  reported  simply  as  "  In- 
toxication."    Eighty  per  cent,  of  §257,501  is  §206,000. 

That  is,  the  liquor  traffic  causes  $200,000  of  police 
expenses,  and  pays  Si 30, 000  toward  meeting  them.  We 
believe  the  ratio  would  not  be  better  if  followed  through 
the  pauper  and  criminal  expenses  of  all  our  cities.  The 
Dow  Law  appropriates  $150  for  each  saloon  toward  the 
taxes  of  the  municipality  where  the  saloon  is  located. 
Bnt  any  one  who  has  seen  much  of  intemperance  will  be 
sure  that  $150  will  not  nearly  pay  for  the  crime  and  pau- 
perism caused  by  one  saloon  year  after  year.  That  is 
the  whole  case.  The  saloon  docs  not  pay  expenses.  The 
Dow  Law  which  does  not  reduce  taxation  in  State  and 
county  does  not  in  the  city. 

Omaha,  Nebraska,  may  be  called  the  champion  High 
License  city.      Of   the   economic   effect   of   the  system 


DOES    HIGH    LICENSE    PAY?  89 

there,  The  Voice  of  May  30th,  1889,  publishes  the  fol- 
lowing particulars  : 

"  Two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  is,  in  round 
numbers,  the  amount  of  revenue  that  the  city  of  Omaha, 
Neb.,  draws  annually  from  her  High  License  saloons. 
Each  saloon  pays  $1,000  per  year,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  1889  there  were  about  260  licensed  saloons  in  opera- 
tion. That  is  an  enormous  liquor  revenue  for  a  city  of 
only  110,000  population." 

•3t  4f  *  *  vf  * 

During  the  present  year,  according  to  the  Omaha 
'Worlds  the  total  tax  levy  is  48  mills  on  the  dollar  ; 
while  in  the  city  of  Des  Moines,  in  the  Prohibition  State 
of  Iowa,  according  to  the  Iowa  State  Register  ior  May 
11th,  the  total  levy  is  only  22J  mills  on  the  dollar. 
**  And  it  is  to  be  remembered,"  adds  the  Register^  '*  that 
the  property  valuation  for  taxation  purposes  in  Des 
Moines  is  less  than  forty  per  cent,  of  its  real  valuation, 
while  in  Omaha  this  valuation  is  placed  at  a  high  figure 
in  order  that  the  city  may  make  as  good  a  business  show- 
ing as  possible." 

Even  this  striking  comparison  does  not  tell  the  whole 
story.  The  people  of  the  $1,000  High  License  city  of 
Omaha  groan  under  constantly  increasing  burdens  of 
taxes.  This  statement  is  not  made  upon  authority  hos- 
tile to  Omaha  or  her  liquor  system,  but  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  one  of  her  leading  daily  newspapers,  the  Omaha 
World. 

In  a  recent  issue  of  the  World,  bitter  complaints  were 
made  about  the  taxes.  That  journal  said,  among  other 
things  : 

''  Properly  owners  and  (aot-payers  of  Omaha  must  look  with  some  con- 
cern upon  the  taxjiijures  of  this  year.     Aside  from  the  special  taxes  for 


40  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

public  improvements,  property  owners  will  be  expected  to  pay  $974,- 
000  for  regular  city  taxes  by  July  1st.  This  is  an  increase  of  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars  ovfr  last  year.  For  the  past  four  years 
the  volume  of  regular  city  taxes  collected  from  property  owners  has 
been  as  follows  : 

"  For  1886,  $475,000  ;  for  1887,  $625,000  :  for  1888,  $739,000  ;  for 
1889,  $994,000, 

**  The  burden  of  city  taxes  has  therefore  increased  thirty  per  cent,  over 
last  year.     Is  it  not  about  time  to  call  a  halt  ?  .  .  . 

'*  The  levy  is  three  mills  heavier  than  last  year,  the  valuation  is  several 
millions  greater,  and  the  amount  which  w>ll  be  collected  is  a  quarter  of  a 
million  greater  than  in  1888.     Is  it  not  about  lime  for  tax-payers  to  protest  ?" 

The  Iowa  State  Register^  commenting  upon  this  cry 
of  distress,  says  : 

"  It  will  be  hard  on  the  '  exiles  '  who  left  Iowa  hoping  to  find  a 
place  of  prosperity  and  personal  liberty  inth«  Nebraska  metropolis." 

*^  It  will  be  bard"  also  upon  the  High  License  ad- 
vocates everywhere.  Omaha  has  tried  High  License  for 
a  longer  period  than  any  other  American  city,  having 
charged  every  saloon  $1,000  per  3^ear  for  nearly  eight 
years.  If  the  liquor  revenue  argument  is  worth  any- 
thing, if  an  immense  rum  revenue  reduces  taxes  in  a  city, 
the  fact  ought  to  appear  in  Omaha,  with  her  annual  in- 
come of  $260,000  from  tlie  saloons.  But  the  burden  of 
taxes  has  increased  steadily  in  that  city,  the  increase 
having  been  thirty  per  cent,  in  the  last  year.  The  rate 
of  taxation  is  higher  than  ever  before,  and  is  more  than 
twice  the  tax-rate  prevaiHng  in  Prohibition  Des  Moines, 
although  in  Des  Moines  property  is  valued  for  taxation 
purposes  at  only  forty  per  cent,  of  its  real  value. 

The  Omaha  newspaper  from  which  we  have  quoted 
does  not  state  the  reasons  for  the  increasing  taxation. 
But  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  the  crime-produc- 
ing High  License  saloons  are  largely  responsible  for  it. 
In  a  city  where  the  work  of  the  saloon  is  so  destructive 


DOES   HIGH    LICENSE    PAY?  41 

that  there  is  one  arrest  for  every  ten  of  the  population, 
it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  taxes  will  be  low. 

In  the  matter  of  police  expenses,  there  is  a  heavy  item, 
which  cannot  be  put  into  dollars  and  cents — viz.  :  It  re- 
duces the  efficiency  of  the  police.  By  natural  necessity, 
it  is  a  great  part  of  their  business  to  watch  saloons. 
Crimes  are  always  liable  to  occur  there.  Criminals  are 
sure  to  resort  there.  The  average  policeman,  obliged  to 
hover  around  the  saloon  in  heat  and  cold,  in  storm  and 
sleeplessness,  is  almost  sure  to  seek  alcohol's  quick  relief. 
It  is  for  the  saloon-keeper's  interest  to  be  on  good  terms 
with  him,  and  make  it  pleasant  for  him  to  *'  step  in  and 
get  a  drink."  The  result  is  thus  given  in  the  Cleveland 
Press : 

**  Tho  eflBciency  of  the  police  force  is  becoming  seriously  impaired 
by  the  persistent  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  by  a  goodly  number  of 
the  patrolmen.  All  the  men  do  not  drink  ;  probably  not  over  twenty 
per  cent  are  habitual  guzzlers  ;  but  of  these  are  several  officers  who 
are,  when  sober,  good  and  reliable  policemen.  They  are  never  ac- 
tually drunk  while  on  duty,  but  keep  just  so  full  all  the  time.  Their 
breaths  are  laden  with  whiskey  fumes  so  dense  that  even  a  strong 
man  cannot  stand  and  talk  to  them  without  turning  away.  .  .  . 
This  drinking  habit  is  slowly  growing,  and  unless  a  stop  is  put  to  it, 
there  will  be  as  many  drunkards  in  the  policemen's  chairs  in  the  po- 
lice court  as  there  are  on  the  prisoners'  bench.  It  was  only  a  few 
days  ago  that  an  officer  was  so  full  of  liquor  in  the  police  court  that 
he  went  to  sleep,  and  it  was  only  by  tlie  efforts  of  his  brother  patrol- 
men  that  he  was  straightened  up  to  testify. " 

In  this  condition  of  things  it  must  require  a  greater 
number  of  men  for  the  same  amount  of  protection. 

Now  observe,  it  is  the  licensed  saloon  that  does  this. 
Make  the  saloon  an  outlaw,  make  the  liquor-seller  a 
criminal,  ipsofacto^  and  the  policeman  will  not  have  to 
be  on  good  terms  with  him  as  now.  He  will  not  have  to 
guard  and  take  care  of  his  place  as  now..     Put  only  tern- 


42  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

perate  men  on  your  force,  and  the  only  connection  they 
will  have  with  the  '^  boot-leggers"  will  be  to  ''  run  them 
in" — like  any  other  criminals.  It  is  the  authorized  sa- 
loon that  makes  the  policeman's  case  so  hard.  He  must 
be  near  it.  If  a  row  occurs,  or  a  man  is  killed  in  a  sa- 
loon on  his  beat,  the  question  will  be,  ^'  Where  were 
you  ?  You  knew  such  things  were  likely  to  happen 
there.  Why  were  you  not  on  hand  V '  He  must  keep 
his  eyes,  ears,  and  thoughts  on  the  drinking-places,  and 
himself  within  easy  reach  of  them.  Yet  he  cannot  close 
them  up  nor  stop  their  selling.  He  will  often  have  to 
watch  for  criminals  there,  and  must  keep  on  good  terms 
with  the  proprietor.  It  is  idle  to  say  our  license  does 
not  give  protection.  It  must,  for  taxation  involves  pro- 
tection ;  and  it  gives  it.  I  have  seen  a  saloon-keeper 
push  to  his  door  a  poor  fellow  who  was  just  tipsy  enough 
to  be  exasperating,  and  beckon  two  policemen.  When 
they  tried  every  way  to  avoid  interference,  he  said,  ^'  I 
want  you  to  arrest  him,"  and — with  manifest  disgust 
and  reluctance — the  officers  laid  hold  on  the  poor  fellow, 
who  then  began  kicking,  biting,  and  rolling  on  the 
ground,  and  so  was  dragged  away,  while  the  man  who 
had  sold  him  the  liquor  stood  in  his  doorway  coolly 
watching  the  scene.  Prohibition  would  have  made  such  a 
thing  impossible.  Then  if  the  liquor-seller  had  contrived 
to  make  his  man  drunk,  he  would  have  been  amazingly  shy 
of  calling  on  the  police  to  take  care  of  him.  He  would 
have  been  studying  the  most  private  and  secret  way  to 
avoid  an  interview  with  any  member  of  the  force,  and 
would  rather  have  seen  anything  than  a  uniform.  It  is 
the  taxed  or  licensed  traffic  that  enables  the  saloon- 
keeper to  bo  on  good  terms  with  the  police,  and  compels 
the  policeman  to  be  a  satellite  of  the  saloon. 


DOKS    HIGH    LICENSE    PAY?  48 

But  even  as  regards  taxation,  the  expense  of  tlie  sa- 
loon is  more  than  a  matter  of  police.  Rev.  Dr.  Peddie, 
in  a  recent  address,  said  :  "  I  know  a  minister  who  had 
to  sell  his  home  at  $-1,000  below  its  fair  valuation  because 
a  saloon  was  started  next  door  to  his.  No  den  of  drink 
can  be  started  without  spreading  depreciation  in  the  price 
of  houses  and  honest  business  places  all  around  it." 

Is^ow  the  assessment  is  going  to  be  lower  on  that  priced- 
down  property,  and  somebody  must  pay  a  higher  rate  in 
order  to  make  up.  Reducing  the  value  of  property  has 
the  same  effect  as  increasing  taxes,  and  is  a  far  greater 
hardship.  The  saloon  building  may  rent  for  more 
than  it  would  for  any  other  purpose,  but  all  the  sur- 
rounding property  is  injured.  Very  few  owners  of  real 
estate  want  to  have  a  saloon  opened  in  the  innnediate 
neighborhood  of  their  property,  however  willing  they 
might  be  to  have  it  somewhere  else. 

In  one  of  our  cities  a  fine  residence  on  a  beautiful 
street  was  advertised  for  rent  at  a  very  low  rate.  It 
seemed  a  most  tempting  offer  till  we  reached  the  corner, 
and  looked  across  the  pretty  lawn.  On  the  adjoining 
lot,  fronting  on  the  street  below,  a  brewery  reared  its 
tall  chinmeys,  poisoning  the  atmosphere  above,  while 
the  human  beings  that  haunted  it  poisoned  the  atmos- 
phere below.  It  only  needed  to  look  in  each  other's 
eyes,  and  we  walked  on  without  opening  the  gate. 

A  professional,  man  owned  a  building  on  a  busy  street, 
renting  the  lower  part  for  a  store,  and  occupying  the  up- 
per rooms.  In  the  building  next  adjoining  was  a  saloon, 
80  placed  that  its  door  was  almost  under  his  windows, 
and  till  after  midnight  his  family  would  be  kept  awake 
by  the  talk,  at  once  loud  and  low,  that  went  on  around 
that  door.     He  has  even  had  stones  thrown  through  his 


44  FX'ONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

windows  to  the  imminent  danger  of  the  occupants.  Why 
did  he  live  there  ?  Because  if  he  left  the  rooms  he  could 
not  rent  them  to  any  other  respectable  family  with  that 
saloon  adjoining.  The  owners  of  those  two  pieces  of 
property  could  have  well  afforded  to  have  their  taxes 
doubled  immediately,  if  they  could  have  got  rid  of  that 
brewery  and  that  saloon. 

Whatever  reduces  the  volume  and  profit  of  honest 
trade  has  the  same  effect. 

For  instance,  here  is  a  village  with  no  saloons,  and 
badly  needing  new  sidewalks.  Some  man  reasons : 
*'  !Now  if  we  would  let  in  three  saloons  here,  at  the  Dow 
Law  rate,  we  could  take  in  $450  a  year.  That  would 
build  our  sidewalks  nicely,  and  not  increase  our  taxes." 
But  those  saloons  are  going  to  take  from  your  people 
from  $2,500  to  $5,000  apiece.  The  tax-paying  power  of 
some  of  your  people  is  going  to  be  reduced  by  that 
amount,  say  $10,000  for  your  three  saloons.  That 
money  will  be  taken  from  all  the  retail  business  of  the 
town,  and  by  the  interlacings  of  business  will  make 
everybody  in  the  village  in  some  way  poorer — except 
the  saloon-keepers.  So,  while  your  taxes  may  not  be 
raised,  your  Tnoney  to  jpay  them  with  is  lessened^  which 
comes  to  the  same  thing.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  dry- 
goods  merchant  who  would  have  to  pay  $25  of  that  $450, 
if  it  was  added  to  the  tax  levy.  He  will  save  that.  But 
he  will  sell  $500  less  goods,  because  his  customers  spend 
their  money  for  whiskey.  How  much  has  he  saved  ? 
He  could  better  have  afforded  to  biiild  those  sidewalks 
ont  of  his  own  pocket,  and  made  them  a  present  to  the 
village,  than  to  have  saved  the  tax  by  letting  in  the  sa- 
loons. 

Professor  Ely  tells  us  that  in  a  republic  *'  taxation  is 


DOES   HIGH    LICENSE    PAY?  45 

simply  one  form  of  co-operation."  So  considered,  the 
idea  of  raising  taxes  from  the  saloon  is  this  :  Here  are  a 
hundred  business  men  desiring  some  public  improvement. 
A  liquor-dealer  comes  in  and  says  :  **  Come  down  to  my 
place,  gentlemen,  and  drink  all  you  can,  and  I  will  con- 
tribute to  this  improvement  one-tenth  of  what  you  spend 
at  my  bar,  which  will  probably  pay  the  entire  expense." 
This  is  hailed,  strange  to  say,  as  a  very  generous  propo- 
sition, and  as  a  way  of  really  getting  the  improvement^ 
for  nothing,  till  one  quiet  man  observes  :  **  I  don't  care 
to  drink  the  liquor.  Would  there  be  any  objection  to 
my  contributing  directly  toward  the  improvement  one- 
tenth  of  what  it  would  cost  to  make  me  drunk  and  sav- 
ing the  other  nine-tenths  V  Tlien  suddenly  it  dawns 
upon  the  othei-s  that  they  might  all  do  the  same,  and 
that  it  would  actually  be  cheaper  to  subscribe  the  cost  of 
the  improvement  outright  than  to  pay  ten  times  as  much 
by  way  of  the  saloon  in  order  to  get  the  one-tenth  con- 
tributed. Besides  which  it  occurs  to  them  that  the  re- 
sult of  the  liquor-drinking  will  be  headaches  and  unfit- 
ness for  business  the  next  day,  the  spoiling  of  a  good 
many  hats  and  suits  of  clothes,  with  perhaps  drunken 
quarrels  and  who  shall  say  what  besides  ? 

Behold  the  nation  !  "Whatever  we  want  to  raise  in 
taxes  it  is  immeasurably  better  to  raise  by  some  direct 
assessment  than  to  pay  from  ten  to  fifty  times  as  much 
through  the  saloon  in  order  to  get  it  with  its  long  train 
of  poverty,  ruin,  and  crime.  For  while  the  saloon  in- 
creases taxes  with  one  hand,  it  cuts  down  the  value  of 
property  and  the  volume  of  honest  business  with  the 
other — a  combination  that  no  license  can  pay  for. 


CHAPTER    lY. 

HIGH    LICENSE    AS    A    MONOPOLY. 

**  The  assertion  of  the  free. trade  Democrats  that  the  tax  on  whiskey 
should  be  continued,  because  in  conformity  to  moral  considerations 
whiskey  ought  to  be  taxed,  is  a  piece  of  cheap  and  contemptible 
demagogy.  The  tax  upon  whiskey  conserves  no  moral  principle,  and 
serves  no  moral  end.  It  does  not  restrict  or  regulate  the  traffic  in 
the  slightest  degree.  The  traffic  is  as  free  with  as  it  would  be  with- 
out the  tax.  .  .  .  The  proof  of  this,  if  any  were  needed,  is  found 
in  the  opposition  of  the  principal  manufacturers  and  dealers  in 
whiskey  to  the  abolition  of  the  tax.  .  .  .  The  issue  is  merely  an 
economic  one.  If  the  tax  is  needed  to  meet  the  obligations  of  the 
Government,  and  enable  it  to  carry  out  a  wise  and  liberal  policy  of 
defence  and  improvements,  then  let  the  tax  remain." — Cleveland 
Leader. 

**  We  have  had  High  License  in  Illinois  five  years,  and  while  it  is  a 
success  as  a  revenue  measure,  it  is  an  imdisguised  failure  as  a  tem- 
perance measure.  It  in  no  way  checks  the  consumption  of  intoxi- 
catiug  liquors  as  a  beverage,  nor  does  it  in  the  least  degree  lessen  the 
evils  and  crimes  from  such  use.  Call  High  License  what  it  is,  an 
easy  way  to  raise  a  revenue  from  vice,  but  let  there  bo  an  end  of  in- 
dorsing it  as  a  temperance  or  reform  measure." — Chicago  Daily  News. 

There  was  a  time  when  good  men  thought  that  High 
License  might  be  made  to  stop  the  liquor  traffic,  and 
talked  grandly  of  **  taxing  it  to  death."  It  is  observ- 
able that  no  one  now  talks  of  **  taxing  it  to  death." 
High  License  has  silently  receded  from  its  early  claim. 
The  utmost  claim  of  High  License  now,  is  that 


There  is  nothing  more  amusing  than  the  simplicity 
with  which  this  claim  is  advanced  and  swallowed  by  es- 


HIGH    LICEiiaE    AS    A    MONOPOLY.  41 

timable  men.  It  seems  to  be  viewed  as  a  simple  ques- 
tion of  arithmetic,  thus  : 

If  100  saloons  sell  $500,000  worth  of  liquor  in  one 
year,  50  saloons  will  sell  one-half  of  $500,000,  which  is 
$250,000. 

Then  the  advocates  of  High  License  rub  their  hands 
and  smile,  and  say,  *'  We  have  stopped  the  sale  of  $250,- 
000  worth  of  intoxicating  liquors.  What  a  grand  tem- 
perance work  is  this  !" 

Then  they  proceed  to  the  next  example — viz.  : 

^*  If  100  saloons  make  30  drunkards  and  300  cases  of 
intoxication  every  year,  then  50  saloons  will  make  15 
drunkards  and  150  cases  of  intoxication  in  one  year." 

This  solution  makes  them  happier  still.  They  have 
saved  15  men  from  becoming  confirmed  drunkards,  and 
prevented  150  cases  of  intoxication.     What  a  noble  work  ! 

They  do  not  think  to  inquire  whether  the  work  has 
really  been  done.  They  don't  need  to  know  the  facts. 
Their  theory  shows  that  it  7nust  he  so. 

Well,  suppose  we  experiment  a  little  with  the  theory. 
Her3  is  a  city  with  100  groceries  ;  if  we  can  reduce 
them  to  50,  the  grocers  will  Bell  only  one-half  as  many 
goods  as  before,  and  the  people  will  only  eat  one-half  as 
much. 

But  a  live  grocer  will  say,  ^'  I'll  give  you  $1,000  to  be 
one  of.  the  50,  if  you'll  shut  the  other  places  by  law 
and  keep  them  shut.  These  jpeojple  are  going  to  eat  just 
as  inuch  as  before^  and  I  can  make  more  than  twice  the 
money  by  selling  double  the  amount  of  goods  over  one 
counter." 

This  is  no  longer  matter  of  conjecture.  The  science 
of  monopoly  has,  within  the  last  few  years,  made  rapid 
strides.     It  has  become  the  study  of  every  business  to 


48  ECONOMICS   OF    PKOHIBITIOX. 

reduce  the  number  of  establishments,  while  increasing 
the  product  and  the  profit.  A  familiar  example  of  this 
is  the  Sugar  Trust.  A  great  syndicate  bought  up  all  the 
sugar  refineries  in  the  country,  and  at  once  closed  a  large 
part  of  them  expressly  to  make  more  money — not  with 
the  least  idea  of  reducing,  permanently,  the  consumption 
of  sugar.  By  the  fewer  establishments  the  Trust  can  at 
once  reduce  the  cost  of  production  and  increase  the 
price  to  the  consumer,  thus  making  money  at  both  ends. 
Suppose  a  Convention  of  Dentists,  desiring  to  preserve 
the  teeth  of  the  nation,  were  to  hold  a  jubilee  over  this, 
assuming  that  the  consumption  of  sugar  was  reduced  in 
proportion  to  the  reduction  in  the  number  of  refineries  ! 
That  would  be  a  joke  worthy  of  Mark  Twain.  But  it  is 
gravely  perpetrated  in  the  interests  of  "temperance," 
great  newspapers  solemnly  congratulating  their  readers 
on  the  reduction  or  even  the  non-increase  of  the  number 
of  saloons  as  so  much  in  the  interests  of  "  temperance." 
The  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Onahan,  of 
Chicago,  has  been  going  the  rounds  of  the  papers  : 

"  The  Bubstantial  and  incontrovertible  fact  is  that  High  License 
has  arrested  the  multiplication  of  saloons  in  Chicago— that  whereas 
in  1882-83,  under  a  license  of  $52  per  year,  we  had  3,919  licensed 
saloons,  in  1887-88  we  have  substantially  no  more,  while  the  popu- 
lation has  increased  from  500,000  to  900,000.  So  that  it  is  not  un- 
reasonable to  assume  we  would  have  6,000  or  more  saloons  except  for 
the  intervention  of  High  License." 

Supposing  all  this  to  be  exactly  as  claimed,  what  does 
it  prove  ?  Does  it  show  that  the  consumption  of  liquor 
or  the  production  of  drunkenness  has  been  in  any  way 
reduced  ?  Not  necessarily.  Both  these  may  have  been 
increased,  and  all  the  facts  given  by  Mr.  Onahan  remain 
true.       For,   this  is  just   what  has  happened  to  all 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    A    MONOPOLY.  49 

THE  MANUFACTURES  OF  THE  United  States.      The  Cen- 
siis  Report  of  1880,  Vol.  II.,  page  926,  remarks  : 

'*  The  fact  that  in  the  faoe  of  a  large  increase  in  the  number  of 
hands  employed  in  manufactures,  of  the  malerial  consumed,  and  of  the 
value  of  the  products,  the  number  of  establishments  shows  hardly  an 
appreciable  gain  from  1870  to  1880,  notwithstanding  an  increase  of 
thirty  per  cent,  in  population,  is  amply  accounted  for  by  the  well-known 
tendency  to  concentration  of  labor  and  capital  inlarge  shops  and  factories." 

Here  we  have  all  the  elements  of  the  Onahan  letter,  a 
heavy  increase  of  population,  and  scarcely  a  perceptible 
increase  in  the  number  of  establishments.  We  ought, 
then,  according  to  the  High  License  theory,  to  conclude 
that  the  people  have  used  less  of  all  manufactured  goods 
in  proportion  to  their  number  than  ten  years  before. 
But  the  hard  facts  of  the  Census  show  that  they  used 
very  much  more.  The  smaller  number  of  establish- 
ments used  more  materials,  employed  more  hands,  and 
produced  more  goods.  Why  may  not  the  same  number 
of  saloons,  then,  in  Chicago  have  sold  more  liquor  and 
made  more  drunkards  than  ever  before  ? 

It  is  a  question  of  fact.  But  we  cannot  get  the  facts 
considered.  Over  and  over  we  call  for  the  facts  regard- 
ing the  consumption  of  liquor,  and  the  High  License 
men  will  steadily  revolve  around  the  one  point  of  the 
number  of  saloons.  We  cannot  get  them  to  touch  the 
question  of  the  consumption  of  liquor.  But  this  is  the 
key  of  the  situation — the  one  thing  of  consequence.  If 
the  liquor  is  consumed,  the  intemperance  will  follow.  We 
do  not  care  very  greatly  how  many  saloons  there  are,  if 
the  same  amount  of  liquor  is  consumed.  If  just  as  much 
liquor  would  be  drunk  in  one  great  public  caravansary  as 
in  all  the  saloons  of  a  city,  we  should  not  consider  it  any 
gain  for  temperance  to  reduce  all  tlie  separate  establish- 


60  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

merits  to  that  one  place  of  wholesale  debauchery.      We 
call  the  battle  to  this  one  point, 


And  we  affirm  : 

1.  That  no  advocate  of  High  License — as  far  as  we 
have  been  able  to  learn — has  ever  attempted  to  show  that 
High  License  reduces  the  consumption  of  intoxicants. 
This  is  strong  'prima  facie  evidence  that  the  thing 
cannot  be  done.  It  is  a  point  that  the  friends  of  High 
License  would  be  eager  to  make  if  they  could. 

2.  By  the  law  of  monopoly,  the  reduction  in  the  num- 
ber of  saloons,  or  their  non-increase,  would  lead  us  to 
expect  larger  sales  and  greater  consumption  of  liquor  ; 
for  that  has  been  the  rule  with  every  other  business  in 
the  nation. 

3.  The  evidence  shows  that  with  the  reduction  or  non- 
increase  of  the  number  of  saloons,  the  consumption  of 
liquor  and  consequent  intemperance  have  steadily  and 
heavily  increased. 

We  turn  first  to  the  Internal  Revenue  Report  for 
1888.  There  we  find  (p.  30)  that  the  number  of  re- 
tail dealers  in  all  kinds  of  liquors  has  decreased  from 
196,792  in  1887  to  176,748  in  1888.  This  many  would 
consider  a  most  gratifying  shovting.  As  the  number  of 
States  and  cities  that  have  employed  High  License  dur- 
ing that  time  has  been  greater  than  ever  before,  we  are 
willing  to  credit  High  License  with  a  considerable  share 
of  this  decrease,  though  we  think  nuich  of  it  has  been 
due  to  other  causes.  At  any  rate  we  have  a  decrease  of 
liquor-dealers  of  20,044.  Twenty  thousand  less  retail 
liquor-dealers  in  one  year  I  The  High  License  men 
would  claim  that  as  a  wonderful  gain  for  temperance. 


HIGH    LICENSE   AS   A    MONOPOLY.  61 

We  claim  that  it  does  not  indicate  necessarily  any  gain 
for  temperance,  and  that  those  20,000  fewer  men  may 
liave  sold  a  great  deal  more  liquor.  We  turn  to  page 
VI.  of  the  same  report,  and  there  is  the  proof  that  they 
have.     The  report  gives  : 

Consumption  of  distilled  spirits  increased 
over  that  of  1887 4,185,095  galls. 

Or  from  67,380,391  galls,  in  1887,  to 
71,565,486  galls,  in  1888.  (This  in- 
eludes  fruit  brandy.) 

Increase  in  consumpiion  of  fermented  liq- 
uors was  1,558,693  bbls.  at  31  galls, 
per  bbl 48,319,483  galls. 


Total  Incbease,  all  kinds  of  liquors.  .52,504,578  galls. 

That  is  to  say,  20,000  ftxoer  liquor-dealers  sold  52,- 
000,000  gallons  more  liquor  in  a  single  year  ;  just  1,000,- 
000  gallons  a  week  more.  The  Internal  Revenue  Report 
for  1889  shows  that  the  same  double  process  is  still 
going  on.  The  number  of  retail  dealers  in  all  kinds  of 
liquors  has  decreased  to  171,669,  a  decrease  of  5,079. 
The  consumption  of  all  kinds  of  liquor  has  increased  by 
19,226,697  gallons.  That  is  to  say,  ^,^^<d  fewer  dealers 
sold  almost  20,000,000  gallons  more  liquor  in  1889  than 
in  1888.  After  that  do  not  be  surprised  if  we  are  in- 
clined to  snap  our  fingers  at  the  statement  that  High 
License  reduces  the  number  of  saloons.  That  does  not 
touch  the  question.  Tell  us  about  the  consumption  of 
liquor. 

Or  take  the  single  State  of  Pennsylvania.  What  are 
the  facts  there  ?  During  the  best  days  of  the  Brooks 
Law  no  proof  was  ever  offered  tliat  it  reduced  the  con- 
sumption of  intoxicants.  The  New  York  Herald  pub- 
lished  some   statements  seemingly   very  strong   to  the 


52  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITION. 

contrary.  The  recent  Brewers'  Congress  at  Buffalo, 
^".  Y.,  received  the  following  report  from  its  Vigilance 
Committee,  under  the  head  of  Pennsylvania  : 

"  The  result  of  the  High  License  law,  passed  in  the  preceding  year, 
has  been  to  reduce  the  number  of  drin king-places  by  about  one-halt, 
and  to  completely  ruin  a  great  number  of  smaller  brewers,  whose 
production  was  confined  to  the  retail  demand  at  their  own  bars. 
Concerning  the  effects  of  the  law  upon  the  consumption  of  intoxicating 
drinks,  there  a7'e  so  many  contradictory  reports  in  circulation  that  it  is 
difficult  to  arrive  at  a  correct  conclusion.  From  the  revenue  returns  it  ap- 
pears that  the  sale  of  beer-stamps  has  increased,  but  whether  increased  ex- 
portation to  adjoining  States  or  increased  home  consumption  accounts  for 
this,  we  cannot  say." 

The  sale  of  beer-stamps  is  practically  always  for  con- 
sumption. That  has  increased  in  Pennsylvania.  Bat  it 
is  possible  the  increase  may  not  have  been  for  use  in 
Pennsvlvania.  In  other  words,  all  the  Brewers'  Asso- 
ciation  is  sure  of  is  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  es- 
tablishments. It  does  not  know  that  the  consumption  of 
liquor  has  diminished,  and  the  indications  are  from  the 
Internal  Revenue  Returns  thai  it  has  increased.  So 
even  the  experience  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the  unhin- 
dered dominion  of  the  lauded  Brooks  Law,  does  not  touch 
the  one  vital  question — the  consumption  of  intoxicants. 

Everything  seems  to  confirm  the  statement  of  the 
Christian  Union,  when  appealed  to  by  a  correspondent 
for  statistics  to  show  that  High  License  had  decreased 
the  consumption  of  liquor  relatively  to  population.  Tiie 
Christian  Union,  a  vigorous  advocate  of  High  License, 
answered  February  23d,  1887  : 

"  The  friends  of  High  License  are  not  able  to  furnish 
any  statistics  upon  this  point." 

They  give  nothing  but  decrease  in  the  number  of 
dealers,  and  to  this  our  reply  stands  good  that,  as  shown 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS   A   MONOPOLY.  SS 

by  the  official  reports  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau 
for  the  whole  United  States,  20,000  Fewer  Dealers  sold 
52,000,000  More  Gallons  of  Liquor  in  the  year  1888 
than  were  sold  in  1887  ;  with  similar  results  in  1889. 

But  we  are  prepared  to  show  that  the  liquor  men  them- 
selves are  at  work  to  do  this  very  thing  of  reducing  the 
number  of  establishments  in  the  interests  of  their  trade. 
A  **  Whiskey  Trust"  has  been  formed,  called  the 
Western  Distillers'  Association,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  reducing  the  number  of  distilleries.  The  President, 
J.  B.  Greenhut,  of  Peoria,  in  his  address  before  the  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  association  in  Peoria,  stated  that  the 
stock  of  the  St.  Paul  distillery  had  been  offered  them, 
and  had  been  positively  declined.     He  also  said  : 

*'  Our  policy  should  be  to  run  upon  prices  low  enough, 

and  for  as  long  a  time  as  necessary  to  overcome  those 

outside  concerns  that  have  been  or  are  now  attempting 

to  take  advantage  of  our  position. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

**  Outside  competitors  must  be  made  to  understand 
that  we  are  in  dead  earnest  in  this  matter,  that  they  can 
hope  for  no  profits  in  the  business,  and  only  see  ruination 
and  losses  as  recompense  for  their  parasitic  ventures. 
After  we  have  succeeded  by  such  means  in  convincing 
our  opponents  that  there  is  no  possible  chance  for  them 
to  prey  on  us,  or  induce  us  to  take  them  into  our  fold, 
we  shall  then  be  able  to  proceed  unmolested  in  the  pur- 
suit of  our  legitimate  business." 

Can  that  be  a  good  restrictive  measure  which  is  part 
of  the  policy  of  the  liquor  men  themselves  in  the  interest 
of  their  business  ? 

A  recently-published  interview  with  a  leading  brewer 
predicts  that  when  the  English  syndicate  sliall  have  se- 


54  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

cured  control  of  all  the  breweries,  they  will  control  the 
distilleries,  and  will  then  move  for  a  uniform  saloon  li- 
cense of  from  $3,000  to  $4,000  throughout  all  the  States, 
bv  this  means  crushing  out  all  independent  saloon-keep- 
ing, and  bringing  the  entire  business  into  the  hands  of 
the  great  '*  Trust,"  which  will  then  proceed  to  plant  just 
so  many  saloons,  and  just  at  such  points  as  will  give  the 
greatest  profit.  While  we  cannot  say  how  authoritative 
this  prediction  is,  it  deserves  to  be  considered  and  an 
outlook  kept  along  that  line,  for  it  seems  to  be  perfectly 
feasible  and  business-like,  and  in  the  very  line  to  which 
the  monopolist  tendency  of  other  business  is  working. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  strongest  of  all 
monopolies  is  a  monopoly  made  by  law.  An  independ- 
ent monopoly  has  either  to  buy  competitors  out,  or 
**  freeze  them  out"  at  vast  expense.  But  a  Govern- 
ment monopoly  has  simply  to  sit  down  and  see  the 
Government  shut  up  all  competing  concerns.  In  a  town 
the  writer  knows  are  two  liv^ery  stables,  where  there  is 
just  a  good  business  for  one.  One  man  has  been  in  the 
business  there  for  twenty  years.  The  other  establish- 
ment has  incessantly  changed  hands.  The  first  man 
says,  **  I  don't  know  but  I  shall  have  to  break  up  every 
man  in  town  before  I  can  make  the  business  pay. "  But 
now,  put  on  a  good,  stiif  Livery  License,  and  you  would 
help  him  out.  lN"ow,  it  is  of  no  nse  for  him  to  buy  out 
the  other  establishment,  for  a  new  man  immediately 
steps  in  to  be  bought  out.  But  make  the  license  such 
that  two  establishments  could  not  possibly  afford  to  pay 
it,  let  him  be  the  first  man  to  pay,  and  the  law  would 
keep  other  men  out.  *'  You  can't  let  a  horse  or  carriage 
in  this  town  till  yon  pay  a  $1,000  license,"  would  settle  the 
case  for  all  adventurers  when  one  strong  business  man 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    A    MONOPOLY.  55 

was  already  in  the  field.  That  is  just  what  we  propose 
to  do  for  the  liquor-sellers,  and  call  it  **  restriction  !" 

This  is  just  the  way  it  works  in  Nebraska.  '*  There," 
a  friend  assures  us,  "  in  the  smaller  towns,  the  $1,000  sa- 
loonist  is  the  great  man  of  the  town."  lie  pays  more 
toward  the  taxes  than  any  other  one  man.  He  is  con- 
sulted in  regard  to  all  public  improvements.  He  con- 
trols the  floating  vote,  holding  it  all  in  his  single  hand. 
The  State  has  saved  him  from  competition.  Often  he 
controls  the  politics  of  the  town. 

This  brings  us  to  another  claim  often  made  in  favor 
of  High  License,  that 


"What  is  the  answer  ?  Is  tlie  political  power  of  any 
other  business  reduced  by  making  it  a  monopoly — con- 
centrating it  in  fewer  hands  ?  Have  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  Company  and  the  Standard  Oil  Company  less 
power  than  the  small  corporations  they  have  superseded  ? 
John  D.  Rockefeller's  little  finger  is  thicker  than  the  loins 
of  all  the  small  operators  his  company  has  absorbed. 
The  greatest  danger  from  the  liqitor  traffic  in  our  politics 
is  its  condensation.  A  cricket  ball  is  made  of  com- 
pressed feathers.  Any  man  who  has  had  it  hit  him  in 
full  career  on  the  cricket  ground  will  wish  he  could  have 
had  a  pailful  of  loose  feathers  thrown  at  him  instead. 
Boil  the  liquor  traffic  down  by  High  License  till  you  get 
it  all  into  the  hands  of  the  men  of  most  capital,  best 
business  talent  and  most  staying  power,  and  all  with  a 
single  policy,  and  they  will  be  such  a  power  in  our  poli- 
tics as  the  East  India  Company  once  was  in  the  politics 
of  England. 

This  last  point  may  seem  to  be  a  little  aside  from  the 


56  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

main  purpose  of  this  chapter,  but  it  has  this  connection. 
When  the  Saloon  Syndicate  is  perfected  and  gains  its 
final  grip  upon  our  politics,  it  will  not  let  the  business 
interests  of  the  traffic  be  hurt  by  any  legislation  that  can 
be  devised.  It  will  not  allow  anytliing  that  will  effectu- 
ally lessen  the  consumption  of  liquor.  We  are  not  swerv- 
ing from  the  economic  question.  For  the  great  impor- 
tance of  the  consumption  of  liquors  from  an  economic 
point  of  view  is,  that  if  the  liquors  are  consumed  the 
people  will  pay  for  them  the  money  which  might  be 
spent  for  better  things  and  help  worthier  business  ;  and 
the  consumption  of  the  liquors  will  draw  after  it  all  the 
attendant  train  of  drunkenness,  poverty,  and  crime. 
Since  the  High  License  Monopoly  has  no  power  to  Lessen 
the  Consumption  of  Intoxicants,  it  is  impotent  to  deliver 
the  nation  from  the  thousand  milHon  dollars  of  direct 
expenditure  for  liquor  and  the  other  thousand  millions 
of  indirect  injury  and  loss. 

One  practical  effect  of  this,  as  of  most  other  monopo- 
lies, is 

A    TAX    UPON    THE    POOR. 

It  is  a  characteristic  of  indirect  taxes  that  they  are 
distributed  not  according  to  what  a  man  owns  or  earns, 
but  according  to  what  he  consumes. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  there  were  a  heavy  tax  on 
quinine  in  a  manufacturing' district.  There  is  one  capi- 
talist, and  there  are  thousands  of  workingmen.  How- 
ever malarious  the  district  may  be,  the  capitalist  and  his 
family  can  only  consume  the  amount  of  quinine  which 
the  human  system  will  bear — the  dose,  we  will  say,  for 
six  or  eight  people.  That  will  be  all  they  will  contrib- 
ute to  that  tax — a  very  trifling  sum,  scarce  worthy  of 


HIGH    LICENSK    AS    A    MON UPUL\.  57 

footing  up  on  the  State  Auditor's  l)Ooks.  But  those 
thousands  of  workingmen  and  their  families  will  use  it  in 
quantities  that  are  reckoned  by  thousands  of  dollars,  and 
the  amount  they  will  contribute  to  the  tax  will  be  very 
iieavy.  Or,  to  put  it  in  shorter  statement,  the  capitalist, 
owning  his  millions,  will  pay  no  more  tax  than  any  poor 
workman  in  his  employ  who  owns  nothing.  That  is  the 
charm  of  indirect  taxes  to  the  well-to-do  classes.  They 
get  the  tax  mostly  out  of  the  poor. 

In  fact,  in  such  a  case,  the  capitalist  might  not  pay 
even  one  man's  share.  He  might  live  on  a  fine  hill  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  malaria,  while  his  thousands  of  work- 
men had  to  live  in  low,  swampy  lands  that  were  full  of 
it.  He  and  his  family  would  use  no  quinine  and  pay  no 
tax,  while  the  poor  laborers  would  use  it  in  quantities, 
and  pay  thousands  of  dollars.  Of  course  that  would  be 
popular  with  the  capitalist,  unless  he  was  troubled  with 
a  human  heart. 

It  is  the  same  with  liquor.  The  capitalist,  even  if  he  «/ 
gets  '^  as  drunk  as  a  lord,"  can  drink  only  what  it  takes 
to  make  one  man  drunk.  The  drunken  workingman  will 
drink  just  as  much,  and  so  contribute  as  much  to  the 
revenue.  To  be  sure  the  rich  man  ma/  drink  more  ex- 
pensive liquors.  But  in  that  case  they  will  very  likely 
be  imported,  and  if  he  drinks  them  at  home,  he  will  pay 
not  a  cent  of  your 'Miigli  license,"  but  only  the  tariff 
charge  at  the  port  of  entry. 

Or  the  rich  man  may  "  treat"  more  freely.  But  that 
is  doubtful.  Many  a  poor  fellow  who  goes  into  a  saloon 
Saturday  night  with  twenty  or  thirty  dollars  of  wages  in 
his  pocket,  which  are  all  his  earthly  possessions,  and 
comes  out  without  a  cent,  has  spent  more  than  his  em- 
ployer would  have  done,  even  if  he  should  be  a  drinking 


58  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION.  .        .     .       . 

man.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  employer  may  be 
perfectly  temperate,  and  so  contribute  not  one  cent  to 
the  license,  which  he  sees  descending  with  its  whole 
weight  upon  the  miserable  poor.  It  is  the  workingmen 
and  the  poor  who  pay  most  of  the  nation's  Thousand 
Million  Drink  Bill.  It  is  the  workingmen  and  the  poor 
who  chiefly  sustain  our  long  array  of  saloons,  which  Dr. 
Hargreaves  computes  *  '*  would  form  a  city  having  more 
dwellings  than  there  are  in  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg 
combined,  and  as  many  dwellings  remain  as  would 
make   another  city  as   large  as  Sacramento,   Cal."     If 

\;  by  some  crusade  we  could  induce  all  our  workingmen 
and  all  the  poor  to  stop  drinking.  High  License  would 
very  suddenly  cease  to  be  popular  with  the  wealthy 
classes. 
■J  But  why  do  the  workingmen  endure  it  ?  Because  they 
do  not  see  that  they  are  taxed.  It  is  this  which  has 
made  indirect  taxes  a  favorite  expedient  with  all  oppres- 
sive  governments,  because  as  is  said,  "  the  people  do  not 
feel  them."  ^^  which  it  is  meant,  not  that  the  people 
do  not  feel  the  privation  and  poverty  the  tax  may  cause, 
but  they  do  not  feel  it  as  tax.  They  do  not  know  when 
they  pay  the  tax,  and  they  attribute  their  misery  to 
everything  except  the  right  cause. 

J  Hence  they  will  pay  patiently  in  indirect  taxation,  a 
sum  which  would  drive  them  to  downright  rebellion  if  it 
were  assessed  directly.  High  License  is  only  the  tyrant's 
scheme  for  fleecing  the  people  without  their  knowing  it. 
But  our  people  have  a  remedy  against  the  tyranny  whicli 
no  other  people  ever  had  so  completely.  The  people 
are  the  rulers,  and  they  can  stop  the  drink  tax  and  the 


Worse  than  Wasted,"  p.  48. 


UIGU    LICENSE    AS    A    MONOPOLY.  59 

drink  expenditure,  whenever  they  say  the  word.  If 
they  can  only  once  be  made  to  see  that  this  whole  scheme 
is  to  raise  a  revenue  out  of  the  poor,  for  the  **  relief" 
of  the  capitalists,  we  believe  they  will  stop  it  very  sud- 
denly. 


CHAPTER  y. 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    RESTRICTION. 

"  In  November,  1867,  Massachusetts  repealed  her  prohibitory  law 
substituting  license,  its  friends  in  all  parties  combining  for  the 
achievement.  The  chaplain  of  her  State  prison  in  his  annual  report, 
1868,  stated  :  '  The  prison  has  never  been  so  full.  If  the  tide  of  in- 
temperance, greatly  swollen  by  the  present  wretched  license  law,  is 
suffered  to  rush  on  unchecked,  a  fearful  increase  of  crime  will  result. 
The  State  must  soon  enlarge  the  prison  or  build  another.'  The 
chief  constable  of  the  State  asserts,  annual  report,  1869  :  *  This 
law  has  opened  about  2,500  bars  and  over  1,000  other  drinking- 
places,  where  liquors  are  sold  presumably  not  by  the  glass.'  Gov- 
ernor Claflin,  of  Massachusetts,  informed  her  Legislature  in  1869  : 
'  The  increase  of  drunkenness  and  crime  the  last  six  months,  com- 
pared with  the  same  time  in  1867,  is  very  decisive  as  to  the  oper- 
ation of  the  license  law.  The  State  prison,  jails,  and  houses  of  cor- 
rection are  being  rapidly  filled.  Enlarged  accommodations  will  soon 
be  required  if  commitments  increase  as  they  have  since  the  law  went 
into  force.'  " — Trad  Ko.  2  of  the  Ohio  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union. 

"  The  patrons  of  4,000  Philadelphia  saloons  will  swear  off  to-day — 
from  drinking  at  their  old  resorts.  The  majority  of  them  will  coq- 
tinue  to  drink  somewhere,  however." — Philadelphia  Times. 

**  The  High  License  Law  of  Nebraska  is  the  grandest  law  for  the 
liquor  traflBc  there  in."— Peter  E.  Her,  President  of  the  Willow  Springs 
Distilling  Company,  Omaha,  Neb. 

There  are  those  who  will  admit  tliat  High  License 
does  not  decrease  the  consumption  of  liquor,  who  will 
yet  claim  that  it  is  a  valuable  restriction.  **  It  abolishes 
the  dives,"  they  say.     They  maintain  that  the  saloon- 


HIGH    LICKNSK    AS    RK8TRICTI0N.  61 

keeper  who  has  paid  his  high  license  will  at  once  be- 
come a  detective  to  see  that  no  other  man  sells  without 
a  license  ;  that  the  traffic  will  be  in  the  hands  of  ^'  a 
better  class  of  men/'  who  will  be  more  likely  to  observe 
regulations  about  selling  to  inebriates,  minors,  etc. ;  that 
the  fewer  saloons  can  be  more  easily  watched  by  the  po- 
lice, and  crime,  disorder,  and  drunkenness,  in  part,  at 
least,  prevented. 

Does  the  performance  justify  the  promise  ?  Is  High 
License  useful  as  a  Restriction  ?  * 

For  answer  we  turn  again  to  Chicago,  and  quote  again 
the  extract  from  the  letter  of  Mr.  Onahan  : 

"  The  substantial  and  incontrovertible  fact  is  that  High  License 
has  arrested  the  multiplication  of  saloons  in  Chicago — that  whereas 
in  1882-83,  under  a  license  of  $52  per  year,  we  had  3,919  licensed 
saloons,  in  1887-88  we  have  substantially  no  more,  while  the  popu- 
lation has  increased  from  500,000  to  900,000.  So  that  it  is  not  un- 
reasonable  to  assume  we  would  have  6,000  or  more  saloons,  except  for 
the  intervention  of  High  License." 

Yery  well.  We  will  accept  Mr.  Onahan's  statement, 
that  the  number  of  saloons  has  not  appreciably  increased 
(only  five  per  cent)  in  five  years.  But  the  coiisumpiioii  \ 
ofheerhaa  increased  from  872,000  barrels  in  1882  to 
1,674,000  barrels  in  1887.  The  same  number  of  saloons 
sell  800,000  more  barrels  of  beer.  How  much  more  of 
distilled  li(]uors  we  are  not  informed.  Probably  the  in- 
crease would  be  proportionate.  Where,  then,  is  the  gain 
for  temperance  ? 

The  consumption  of  liquor  has  increased.     How  can<^ 
it  but  be   that  intemperance  should  increase  likewise  ? 
Statistics  show  that  it  has.     The  arrests  for  drunkenness 
and  disorderly  conduct  have  increased  from  18,000  in 
1882  to  upward  of  27,000  in  1887,  or  fifty-three  per 


6:^  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

cent.  Kow  we  can  appreciate  the  statement  of  the 
Chicago  Daily  JS^ews,  independent  in  politics,  and  the 
most  successful  dailj  paper  financially  in  the  West,  in  its 
issue  of  April  9th,  1888  : 

"  VTe  have  bad  High  License  in  Illinois  five  years,  and,  while  it  is 
a  success  as  a  revenue  measure,  it  is  an  undisguised  failure  as  a  tem- 
perance measure.  It  in  no  way  checks  the  consumption  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquors  as  a  beverage,  nor  does  it  in  the  least  degree  lessen  the 
evils  or  crime  from  such  use.  .  .  .  The  dives  and  dens,  the  bar- 
rel houses  and  thieves'  resorts  are  as  bad  and  as  frequent  in  this  city 
to-day,  after  five  years  of  High  License,  as  they  ever  were.  Call  High 
License  what  it  is,  an  easy  way  to  raise  a  revenue  from  vice,  but  let 
there  be  an  end  of  indorsing  it  as  a  temperance  or  reform  measure." 

The  above  extract  disposes  of  another  point  in  the 
claim  of  High  License  as  a  Kestriction,  the  claim  that 

**  IT    ABOLISHES    THE    DIVES." 

That  sentence  is  worth  singling  out  by  itself — viz.  : 

"...  The  dives  and  dens,  the  barrel  houses  and  thieves'  re- 
sorts are  as  bad  and  as  frequent  in  this  city  to-day,  after  five  years  of 
EUgh  License,  as  they  ever  were." 

But  Chicago  may  be  an  exception.  Well,  St.  Louis 
has  had  for  some  years  a  $550  license.  Of  its  effect,  the 
following  account  is  given  in  the  St.  Louis  Hepuhlic^  the 
leading  Democratic  daily  in  that  city,  in  its  issue  of  No- 
vember 11th,  1888  : 

"  These  dives  (the  lowest)  are  so  numerous  in  the  city,  their  or- 
ganization is  HO  compact,  their  clientele  so  extensive,  that  as  long  as 
present  conditions  remain  they  will  control  the  city  completely.  .  .  . 
Our  present -license  law  was  intended  to  break  their  power,  but  as  far 
as  it  applies  to  8t.  Louis  it  has  rather  served  to  increase  it." 

But  the  license  may  not  be  high  enough.     Well,  they 


HIGH    LICKN8E    AS    RE8TBICTI0N.  fi3 

have  a  §1,000  license  in  Omaha.  How  does  that  work  ? 
The  Omaha  Daihj  Bee,  a  Republican  paper  and  the 
most  active  champion  of  the  High  License  system  in 
Nebraska,  said  editorially,  December  1 0th,  1-888  : 

"  No  one  can  deny  that  the  license  system  as  now  existing  in  our 
city  has  been  a  source  of  corruption  and  irregularity.  It  has  had  a 
demoralizing  effect  upon  members  of  the  City  Council  and  the  City 
Clerk.  It  has  exacted  political  support  from  the  low  dives  and  bum- 
mers ;  it  has  compelled  the  orderly  liquor-dealers  to  support  with 
money  and  influence  the  very  worst  element  of  the  city,  and  has 
used  the  liquor  men  to  do  the  dirty  work  at  primaries  and  elections. 
The  reason  for  this  is  easy  to  find.  The  License  Board  is  made  up 
of  the  Mayor,  President  of  the  City  Council,  and  City  Clerk,  each 
holding  an  elective  ofl&ce.  The  temptations  to  abuse  the  position  as 
a  member  of  the  License  Board  are  manifold.  There  are  opportuni- 
ties to  make  corrupt  bargains.  In  return  for  pecuniary  or  political 
support  a  member  of  the  Board  can  grant  license  to  disreputable  in- 
dividuals or  wink  at  violations  of  the  license  law.  The  average 
member  of  the  License  Board  plays  for  political  power,  for  reelec- 
tion, and  he  keeps  his  eye  to  the  main  chance  to  gain  the  solid  sap- 
port  of  the  liquor  men." 

The  police  reports  of  Omaha  for  1888  give  the  follow- 
ing : 

The  total  number  of  arrests  for  the  year  was  11,910. 
The  following  is  an  analysis  of  the  causes  of  arrest  : 

•♦  Vagrants,  3,162  ;  drunk,  2,450  ;  prostitutes.  2,442  ;  fight,  1,076  ; 
keepers  of  houses  of  ill-fume,  423  ;  assaults  of  all  kinds,  119  ;  disor- 
derly persons,  182  ;  disturbing  the  peace,  115  ;  inmates  of  hoases  of 
prostitution,  73  ;  assignation  houses,  24  ;  selling  liquors  on  Sunday, 
9  ;  selling  liquors  after  midnight,  8  ;  selling  liquors  to  minors.  7  ; 
selling  liquors  without  license,  33  ;  selling  liquors  on  election  day, 
2  ;  obstructing  view  to  saloon,  4  ;  all  other  offences,  1,781." 

The  record  shows  that  2,962,  or  about  one-fourth  of  all 
the  arrests,  are  of  prostitutes,  keepers  of  houses  of  ill- 
fame  and  assignation,  and  inmates  of  houses  of  prostitu- 


64  '  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

tion.  This  large  number  is  explained  by  the  peculiar 
system  of  licensing  prostitution  that  prevails  in  Omaha. 
Aside  from  the  so-called  '^arrests"  for  prostitution, 
the  total  number  of  arrests  in  Omaha  last  year  was  8,948  ; 
and  of  this  number  6,968,  or  just  about  four-fifths,  were 
for  the  offences  of  drunkenness,  vagrancy,  fighting,  as- 
sault, disorderly  conduct,  disturbing  the  peace,  and 
violating  the  liquor  laws — offences,  with  scarcely  an 
exception,  growing  out  of  the  saloons.  A  very  large 
percentage  of  the  remaining  one-fifth  of  the  arrests  was 
undoubtedly  due  to  liquor-selling.  This  is  the  proud 
record  made  in  Omaha,  where  no  man  can  lawfully  sell 
a  drop  of  any  kind  of  liquor  over  the  bar  without  paying 
$1,000  for  a  license.* 


*  The  Voice  Bdra  for  January,  1889,  from  which  the  above  facts 
are  takeD,  gives  the  following  explanation  of  this  matter,  which,  so 
far  as  we  are  able  to  learu,  no  one  has  attempted  to  disprove  : 

THE    PBICE   OF   CRIME, 

Each  prostitute  and  keeper  of  a  honse  of  ill-fame  or  assignation 
is  required  to  come  to  the  police  court  at  the  first  of  each  month 
and  pay  her  monthly  fine  and  costs.  The  fine  for  a  prostilnto 
is  $3,  with  $3  costs  ;  for  a  "landlady,"  $7,  with  $3  costs  ;  for  a 
keeper  of  a  house  of  assignation,  $25,  with  sJ3  costs.  They  f^imply 
go  to  the  police-court  bar,  pay  the  price  fixed  for  thfir  riudit  to 
do  business,  and  depart  to  continue  their  sinful  lives  wiih  the 
assurance  that  they  have  bought  immunity  from  the  city.  And 
this  farcical  procedure  is  called  "arresting"  prostitutes.  It  is  re- 
peated each  month,  and  at  the  end  of  the  }  ear  the  monthly  totals  nre 
aggregated,  and  the  grand  total  is  set  down  in  the  police  returns. 
This  is  how  Omaha  came  to  make  2.962  "  arrests"  of  the  sort  last 
year.  The  uninitiated  person,  looking  at  the  police  returns, 
would  suppose  that  Omaha's  authorities  are  rigorously  virtuous 
individuals  engaged  in  a  great  crusade  to  stamp  out  vice.  The 
truth  is,  they  have  set  up  a  system  making  prostitution  a  legal- 
ized business,  to  bo  conducted  like  liquor  selling  under  certain  regu- 
lations, chief  of  which  is  the  payment  to  the  city  of  a  share  of  the 
profits. 

PBOSTITTJTION     MONEY     FOB    EDUCATION. 

The  entire  revenue  from  prostitution,  for  the  year  1888,  is  as  fol- 
lows :  License  fees,  or  **  fines,"  as  they  are  politely  called,  $10,330. 


HIGH    LICENSE   AS   RESTRICTION.  65 

The  following  letter  appeared  in  the  Chicaojo  Standard 
(the  leading  Baptist  paper  of  the  Northwest),  August 
8th,  1889  : 

**  Restrict,  does  it  ?  On  all  wet  days,  when  our  army  of  pavers  and 
shovellers  cannot  work,  the  saloons  are  crowded  with  customers  from 
morning  till  late  into  the  night.  Say,  kind  reader,  can  you  imagine 
what  forebodings  afflict  the  patient,  sorrowing  wife  whose  life  is 
made  miserable  by  the  carousals  of  a  drunken  husband  ?  Mr.  81o- 
cum,  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  High  License  Law,  is  dead  now,  hut 
he  lived  long  enough  to  repent  of  his  work,  and  was  often  heard  to  say 
that  it  was  the  saddest  mistake  of  his  life,  and  he  would  never  cease  to  de- 
plore it.  Instead  of  this  law  being  a  promotive  of  temperance,  it  has 
proved  itself  to  be  an  efficient  auxiliary  to  drunkenness  and  de- 
bauchery. 


"  *  High  License  '  is  a  fraud. 

*'  S.  M.  Benedict." 
Lincoln,  Neb.,  July  17th,  1889. 

We  quote  further  from  an  address  to  the  people 
of  Nebraska  from  the  State  Non-partisan  Prohibitory 
Amendment  League  : 

"  To  the  People  of  Nebraska  : 


HIGH   LICENSE, 

has  wholly  failed  to  remedy  the  evils  of  the  liquor  traffic.     If  it  has 
reduced  the  number  of  saloons,  it  has  proportionally  increased  the 


Costs,  $8,178.  Total.  $18,508.  The  fines  go  to  the  School  Fund  and 
the  costs  to  the  General  Incidental  Fund  ;  so  that  the  largest  part  of 
the  blood  money  from  prostitution  is  used  to  educate  Omaha's  chil- 
dren ! 

This  shows  the  demoralizing  tendency  of  High  License  liquor 
laws.  Omaha  takes  $1,000  each  from  her  saloons  and  has  found  it 
so  easy  to  raise  a  big  revenue  from  vice  that  the  principle  is  extended 
to  the  social  evil. 


66  ECONOMICS   OF    PKOHIBITION'. 

(lestmctive  power  of  those  doing  business,  by  reducing  competition 
and  increasing  their  patronage.  Enabled  to  do  so  by  reason  of  the 
monopoly  given  to  them,  and  urged  by  the  necessity  of  meeting  the 
payment  of  large  license  fees,  the  saloon  men  have  practised  every 
device  to  make  more  attractive  their  places  of  business  and  to  in- 
crease the  number  and  incite  the  thirst  of  drinkers,  thus  luring  to 
poverty,  shame,  and  crime  many  young  men  for  whom  the  cheap 
groggery  has  no  attractions.  By  the  testimony  of  the  brewers  and 
distillers  themselves.  High  License  has  not  checked  the  use  of  in- 
toxicating  liquors  in  Nebraska,  while  crime,  pauperism,  insanity, 
and  waste  and  misery  produced  by  the  drink  habit,  have  kept  pace 
with  the  growth  of  the  population." 

Such  is  tlie  record  of  High  License  in  its  home— in 
the  State  of  Nebraska,  which  has  tried  it  longest,  and  at 
the  highest  figures. 

We  add  the  following  table  taken  from  The  Voice  of 
January  24th,  1889,  whose  statements,  at  the  expiration 
of  now  more  than  a  year,  have  never  been  disproved  : 

A    STARTLING    COMPARISON. 

THE   PROPORTION    OF   ARRESTS   FOR    DRUNKENNESS    AND    DISORDERLY   CON- 
DUCT  GREATER   EVEN   IN   HIGH  LICENSE  THAN    IN    LOW-LICENSE   CITIES. 

The  following  table  compares  14  High  License  with  15  Low-License 
cities  In  the  High  License  cities  the  license  fee  ranges  between 
$500  and  $1,000  ;  in  the  Low-License  cities,  between  $25  and  $200. 
The  figures  are  for  1887.     The  table  shows  : 

First.  That  14  High-License  cities  whose  license  fee  avernges 
$710  have  a  saloon  to  every  2G7  persons,  and  an  arrest  for  drunken- 
ness and  disorderly  conduct  to  every  38  persons,  which  arrests  are 
57.2  per  cent,  of  the  total  arrests. 

Second.  That  15  Low-License  cities  whose  licenso  fee  averages  $116 
have  a  saloon  to  every  170  persons,  and  an  arrest  for  drunkenness 
and  disorderly  conduct  to  every  37  persons,  which  arrests  are  55.6 
per  cent,  of  the  total  arrests.  Estimates  of  population,  except  as 
otherwise  stated,  are  from  the  report  of  Dunn's  Mercantile  Agency 
for  1888  : 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    RESTRICTION. 


67 


CiTT. 

(Facts  furnished  The 
Voice  direct  by  tlie 
Mayors  and  Chiefs 
of  PoliceO 


Omaha 

Gale.-»burg 

•Minneapolis. 

Joliet 

Rockford 

Kansas  City.. 
Bloomington. . 

St.  Loaia 

Detroit 


^eoria , 

Muskegon 

Saginaw  City.. 

Chicago 

New  York.  . . . 

Cleveland   

Milwaukee 

Cincinnati 

Columbus 

Poughkeepsie  . 
Wjlmingtou . . . 

Brooklyn 

Binghamton . . . 
San  Francisco . 

Paterson 

Jersey  City 

Tonkers 

Baltimore 

Cohoes 


Summary. 

14  High-License  cities, 

15  Low-license  cities. 


.2-2 
i    -"o 


$100,000 

13.500 

$175,000 

20,000 

22,000 

$175,000 

22,000 

600,000 

$180,0001 

»i,500, 

33,000 

25,000; 

20,000, 

900,000. 

$1,500,000 

200,000 

$190,000 

800,000 

80,000 

20,207 

$58,000 

$757,755 

22,361 

$306,000; 

51,0311 

$165,000 

20,ooo; 

480,000; 
21,420' 


$1,000 

(,OuO 

1,000 

1,000 

1,000 

800 

600 

550 

500 

500 

500 

500 

500 

500 

200 

200 

200 

200 

2.0 

125 

too 

100 
90 
84 
75 
50 
50 
50 
25 


2,220,000 
4,170,774 


Average 

License. 

$701 


ii 

am 


246 

17 


491 


53 

tl,750' 
1,100| 
110 
140i 
75 
691 
8.944 

8,oiu: 

1,098 

5i,300 
42.") 
123 
160 

3,356, 
86 

2,857! 
650 

1,105 
92 

2,500 

204 

I 

!' 


415 


1^ 


O  Crs 


<^^   \^ 


c-c  c 


d  n 


p<3  oa 


733 
5,876 
1.150 
401 
7,920 
877 
17,938 
9,400 
806 
1,983 
413 
554 
228!  46,505i 
187i  81,1761 
133!     8,588 

ir3    4,401! 

130  11,925 

188:  4,831 

164  489 

362|  2,263 

226;  28,567 

2601  1,112 

107i  20,885 

781  2,718 

149  6,168 

217I  1,268 

1921  27,200 

105  667 


8,301 
116  24,472 


2,154 

643 

3,404 

705 

805 

8,866 

457 

10,441 

6,160 

-^9 

794 

§413 

237 

27,632 

46,^1 

4,957 

3,135 

5,959 

2,869 

219 

1,897 

14,030 

735 

9,368 

1,699 

1,993 

934 

19.815 

406 


267100,683  57,660 
170  201,758  112,259 

I  I 


42Q* 

!-  c  at* 
<  «.  c  i- 

o  ^0< 
«:  e  >>ia 
c  •— *r 
«jt  5  o 

V  I"? 
o 


35 
88 
58 
61 
76 
49 
52 
58 
65 
55 
40 
§100 
43 
59 
55 
57 
71 
49 
49 
44 
61 
49 
66 
46 
62 
32 
73 
73 
61 


37 


57.2 
55.6 


*  Partial  Prohibition,  saloons  being  confined  to  a  particular  dis. 
trict. 

f  Estimated  from  half-yearly  report. 

J  Estimates  furnished  the  World  Almanac  by  the  Mayors. 

§  In  reply  to  an  inquiry  as  to  the  reliability  of  these  figures,  the 
following  despatch  was  received  : 

Muskegon,  Mich.,  January  18,  1889. 

The  Voice,  18  &  20  Astob  Place.  New  York  :  Whole  number  of 
arrests  in  1887,  413  ;  of  which  361  for  drunks  and  52  for  disorderly 
conduct  and  other  causes. 

John  Kx'PFENHEnkrETi.  Secretary  Board  of  Poliee  and  ffealth. 


6S  ECONOMICS    OF    PllOHIBlTION'. 

These  facts  are  developed  : 

1.  The  license  fee  is  more  than  six  times  larger  in  the  High-Li- 
cense than  in  the  Low-License  cities. 

2.  The  difference  between  the  nwriber  of  arrests  for  drunkenness 
and  disorderly  conduct  is  very  insignificant. 

3.  The  proportion  of  arrests  for  drunkenness  and  disorderly  con- 
duct to  the  total  arrests  is  greater  in  the  High-License  than  in  the 
Low-License  cities. 

Changing  the  place  does  not  change  the  fact.  The 
following  letter  was  published  in  The  Voice,  April  18th, 
1889.  "We  would  call  special  attention  to  its  very  clear 
and  striking  financial  estimates  as  well  as  its  testimony 
to  facts  : 

HIGH  LICENSE  IN  ST.  PAUL. 

HOW   IT  INCREASES   THE   PROFITS   OF   THE   SALOONS,  BUT   FAILS    TO   DIMIW. 
ISH   DRINKING. 

Editob  The  Voice  :  At  first  view  of  High  License  it  is  generally  ac- 
cepted that  the  additional  tax  is  an  additional  burden  on  the  liquor 
business.    Is  this  correct  ?    Let  us  see. 

The  expense  of  running  any  business  is  to  that  extent  a  tax  upon 
the  business,  and  must  be  deducted  from  the  profits  of  the  trade  or 
business.  Now  under  the  low  $100  license  St.  Paul  had  700  saloons. 
When  the  license  was  raised  to  $1,000,  the  number  6f  saloons  was  re- 
duced fifty  per  cent,  to  350  in  1888.  One-half  the  saloons  dropped 
out,  and  the  expense  of  running  them  ceased  to  be  a  tax  upon  the 
business. 

Now  the  average  expense  of  running  a  saloon  under  the  old  $100 
fee  and  supporting  the  sa'^on-keeper's  family,  I  think  no  one  in  this 
city  would  place  under  $1,500  annually.  Now,  under  the  $1,000  High 
License  350  saloons  have  ceased  to  draw  their  support  from  the 
profits  of  the  trade.  Three  hundred  and  fifty  saloons  at  $1,500  ex- 
pense each  is  $525,000— the  amount  of  burden  which  the  liquor 
iraflBc  in  St.  Paul  was  at  one  stroke  relieved  of  by  High  License. 
The  additional  tax  of  High  License  on  each  remaining  saloon  was, 
however,  $900,  amounting  on  350  saloons  to  $315.00(>.  Now  deduct 
this  additional  burden  of  $315,000  from  the  $525,000  of  expense 
saved  to  the  trade  by  the  stopping  of  350  saloons,  and  the  gain  to 
the  liquor  traffic  in  St.   Paul  by  the  operation  of  High  License  is 


HIGH   LICENSE    AS    RESTRICTION".  69 

$210,000,  or  $600  to  each  and  every  remaining  saloon  in  the  city  ! 
No  wonder  the  saloon-keepers  of  St.  Paul  are  satisfied  with  High  Li- 
cense. 

The  same  general  results  of  additional  profits  to  the  saloon-keepers 
would  be  obtained  should  the  license  fee  be  raised  still  higher,  for 
no  one  in  St.  Paul  claims  that  High  License  has  in  any  way  de- 
creased the  quantity  of  liquor  consumed. 

If  High  Licen.se  reduced  the  amount  of  liquor  sold  or  drunk,  there 
would  be  some  compensation  in  it  to  society,  but  evidence  is  accu- 
mulating from  all  High  License  States,  and  especially  from  the  large 
cities,  what  we  know  to  be  the  case  in  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis, 
that  crime  and  all  immorality  were  never  so  rife  as  now.  As  to  the 
restrictive  sections  of  the  High  License  law,  they  are  not  at  all  re- 
garded nor  enforced  in  a  single  instance,  as  was  said  by  the  Rev. 
S.  G.  Smith,  the  champion  of  High  License  in  this  city,  in  his  late 
speech  before  the  Legislative  Assembly. 

But  the  thought  I  wish  to  emphasize  is,  that  the  more  you  curtail 

the  number  of  saloons,  the  more  you  increase  the  profits  of  the  trade 

in  any  locality,  for  the  amount  of  business  done  not  only  continues 

the  same,  but  is  steadily  on  the  increase,  proving  that  nothing  but 

Prohibition  can  at  all  reach  the  case  as  a  remedy. 

A,  D.  Davison. 
St.  Paul,  Minn. 

The  following  statements  about  the  High  License 
cities  of  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City,  and  St.  Joseph,  are  from 
the  St.  Louis  Bepublic  for  May  2d,  1889  : 

In  St.  Louis  the  license  business  is  all  transacted  by 
the  Collector.  He  is  bound  by  the  law  to  observe  cer- 
tain very  strict  rules.  But  the  lawless  saloons,  by  means 
of  their  political  influence,  compel  him  to  evade  them  all. 

Under  the  Missouri  law,  every  would-be  saloon-keeper 
must  present  to  the  Collector  a  petition  signed  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  assessed  tax-paying  citizens  of  the  block. 
Tiic  Collector,  instead  of  investigating  the  signatures  to 
a  petition,  simply  takes  the  sworn  statement  of  the  ap- 
plicant and  then  passes  out  the  license.  '*  If  somebody 
discovers  afterward,"  says  X^q  Bepublic,  '^that  half  of 


70  ECONOMICS   OF  PROHIBITION. 

the  names  on  the  petition  are  also  on  the  gravestones  in 
Bellefontaine  Cemetery,  that  is  a  small  matter  ;  the  li- 
cense has  been  issued  and  the  city  has  the  money." 

The  Bepuhlic  gives  additional  information  about  the 
failure  of  this  restrictive  petition  revision,  as  follows  : 

"  Every  effort  but  one  which  has  been  made  in  three  years  past 
to  prevent  saloons,  by  preventing  a  legal  petition,  has  failed.  It 
is  not  at  all  improbable  thai  half  of  the  saloons  open  in  this  cily  to-day  are 
Hcensed  on  insufficient  petitions.  Saloons  are  frequently  opened  and 
run  for  several  weeks,  and,  in  some  instances,  for  several  months, 
with  neither  petition  nor  license.  A  saloon-keeper  is  usually  given 
the  same  liberty  in  the  matter  of  the  payment  of  his  license  that  is 
given  a  merchant  in  the  payment  of  merchants'  tax,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  High  License  of  $550  is  supposed  to  be  a  regulatory 
tax,  imposed  to  prevent  the  multiplicity  of  saloons  as  much  as  to 
raise  a  revenue  from  them." 

The  following  striking  description  of  the  methods  of 
the  brewers'  monopoly  of  St.  Louis  is  given  by  the  7?^- 
jjublic : 

"It  is  known  by  those  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to  investigate 
the  subject  that  more  than  one-half  of  the  saloons  of  tho  city  are 
opened  and  operated  by  the  breweries,  and  used  as  agencies  for 
thrusting  on  the  market  the  beer  they  manufacture,  thus  creating  a 
demand,  instead  of  merely  supplying  a  natural  demand,  for  intoxi- 
cants. Every  new  neighborhood  is  promptly  supplied  with  a  beer 
saloon.  If  some  enterprising  citizen  erects  a  big  factory  to  employ 
a  large  number  of  mechanics  and  workmen,  the  brewer  has  a  beer 
saloon  open  at  the  side  door  or  just  across  the  street  before  the  man- 
ufacturer has  finished  his  building  or  engaged  his  employes.  The 
Hamilton -Brown  Shoe  Company  have  just  finished  one  of  the  largest 
shoe  factories  in  the  West.  The  machinery  is  not  yet  in  working 
order,  but  a  brewer  has  already  opened  a  saloon  on  Lucus  Place, 
next  to  the  magnificent  building,  where  every  employ^  can  stop  and 
get  a  glass  of  beer,  or  procure  a  bucketful  at  the  dinner  hour.  Of 
oourse  this  is  very  annoying  to  the  gentlemen  who  have  freely  in- 
vested  their  money  in  a  great  industrial  enterprise,  for  they  must 
feel  quickly  the  demoralizing  effect  of  the  drinking  thus  superin- 
duoed  ;  but  they  have  no  remedy.     The  saloon  is  there.     They  could 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    RESTRICTION.  71 

only  complain.     The  brewer  has  the  '  pull,'  and  the  saloon  is  hard  to 
put  down. 

"  These  saloons  are  first  fitted  np  in  elegant  style  by  the  brewers, 
then  some  fellow  who,  in  all  probability,  couldn't  pay  a  month's 
rent  or  secure  a  petition  or  a  bond,  is  put  in  charge  as  '  proprietor.' 
The  brewery  then  sends  an  agent  around  the  block  to  get  a  few 
names  on  a  petition.  (The  saloon  has  been  opened  and  stocked  with 
liquors  already,  but  as  it  is  nobody's  business  nobody  minds  that). 
The  petition  is  filed  with  the  Collector,  and  accompanied  by  an  afl&- 
davit  that  it  is  all  right.  The  Collector  takes  it  without  question, 
and  Mr.  Brewer  or  his  agent  pays  six  months'  license  for  the  '  pro- 
prietor.' TLe  aforesaid  lucky  *  proprietor '  is  then  a  full-fledged 
saloon-keeper,  and  it  does  not  take  long  for  him  to  blossom  out  as  a 
ward  politician  with  '  influence.'  But  the  brewer  holds  an  iron  clad 
mortgage  on  the  saloon  and  everything  in  it.  While  the  saloonist  is 
living  off  the  profits  made  on  the  wines  and  liquors  he  sells,  the 
brewer  is  paying  off  his  own  account  on  the  proceeds  of  beer  sales. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  half  of  the  saloons  in  the  city  have  been  opened 
in  that  way.  About  two-thirds  of  all  the  bonds  of  saloon-keepers 
are  signed  by  the  brewers.  It  is  in  this  way  that  they  maintain  an 
almost  absolute  control  over  the  saloon  interests  and  can  dominate 
this  powerful  political  agency  as  they  please." 

The  license  fee  in  St.  Louis  is  $550.  Other  cities  of 
Missouri  have  even  higher  license  rates,  notably  Kansas 
City  ($850)  and  St.  Joseph  ($750).  The  BepuUic  de- 
clares the  same  demoralizing  tendencies  prevail  there, 
and  that  the  liquor  interests  are  absolute  masters  of  the 
situation  in  both  Kansas  City  and  St.  Joseph.     It  says  : 

'*  What  affects  this  city  of  half  a  million  people  affects  lai^ely  the 
whole  State  ;  but  the  evil  is  not  to  be  appreciated  as  far  as  the  State 
is  concerned,  without  taking  into  calculation  ike  cities  of  Si.  Joseph 
and  Kansas  City  also,  where  exactly  the  same  methods  are  employed  and 
the  same  plans  are  productive  ff  increased  intemperance,  too  many  saloons 
and  beer  bossisni  in  politics.  One  very  convincing  proof  of  the  dan- 
gerous power  of  this  saloon  system  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  Rep. 
resentatives  of  these  three  cities  in  the  Legislature  are  (with  two  or 
three  notable  exceptions)  all  arrayed  aginst  the  only  measure  which 
strikes  at  the  evil  and  proposes  to  put  it  under  control.     In  fact,  the 


73  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

strong  opposition  to  all  temperance  and  reform  laws  comes  from  the 
same  source." 

But  we  are  assured  that  High  License  has  done  good 
in  Pennsylvania.  It  reduced  the  number  of  saloons  in 
Philadelphia  4,000  in  a  single  year.  It  has  reduced  them 
to  about  1,200  for  the  whole  city  for  the  year  1889.  It 
has  reduced  the  number  of  arrests  for  drunkenness  and 
disorder.  It  has  reduced  the  number  of  saloons  in  Pitts- 
burgh to  93  for  the  same  year. 

This  is  the  claim.  But  it  is  a  very  suspicious  one. 
Why  should  High  License  work  so  differently  in  Penn- 
sylvania from  what  it  does  everywhere  else  ?  Is  it  in 
some  way  connected  witli  the  character  and  disposition 
of  William  Penn  ?  Let  us  sift  the  matter  a  little.  The 
doctors  have  a  distinction  on  which  they  lay  great  stress, 
between  2)ost  hoc  and  projAer  hoc — that  is,  whether  one 
thing  simply  follows  another  or  is  caused  by  it.  A  good 
lady  stated  that  her  digestion  had  reached  such  a  point, 
that,  as  she  said,  '^  I  can't  even  eat  bread.  Why,  this 
afternoon  1  crawled  out  into  the  kitchen  and  ate  a  piece 
of  bread  and  a  raw  onion,  and  ihat  bread  has  been  dis- 
tressing me  ever  since. " 

There  was  apparently  a  certain  lack  of  discrimination 
in  her  case.  So  in  regard  to  the  Brooks  Law.  It  does 
provide  for  a  High  License  (not  v^ry  high)  of  $500. 
Therefore  every  good  result  is  due  to  that  High  License. 
This  has  been  the  argument  obstinately  persisted  in  and 
sent  far  and  wide  over  the  country  for  the  past  two  years. 
But  what  are  the  facts  ?  The  Brooks  Law  has  a  bondsman 
clause  making  it  necessary  for  two  owners  of  real  estate 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  to  be  bondsmen  for  the 
saloon-keeper  in  $2,000,  that  he  will  sell  strictly  according 
to  law — i.e.y  not  to  inebriates,  not  to  minors,  not  on  Sun- 


niGH    LICENSE    AS    KESTRICTION.  73 

day,  etc.  This  provision  would  go  a  good  way  toward 
stopping  the  oli'ences  for  which  arrests  are  made,  and 

THIS  PROVISION  WOULD  BE  EXACTLY  AS  GOOD  AND  EFFEC- 
TIVE    IF     THE     SALOON-KEEPER     DID     NOT      PAY      ONE     CENT 

OF  LICENSE.  Then  the  judges  to  whom  the  licensing 
power  is  given  are  invested  with  a  large  discretion.  They 
are  men  of  high  character,  and  have  used  that  power  of 
refusal  to  the  utmost.  It  is  chiefly  this  discretionary 
power  which  has  reduced  the  numl)er  of  licenses.  In 
Philadelphia  last  spring  3,212  applications  for  licenses 
were  filed,  being  2,000  more  than  were  granted  the 
preceding  year.  Undoubtedly  these  applicants  all  stood 
ready  to  pay  the  $500,  and  but  for  the  discretionary 
power  of  the  judges,  Philadelphia  would  now  have  the 
3,000  saloons,  instead  of  the  1,200  which  they  actually  li- 
censed. In  Pittsburgh,  the  rejected  applicants  say  with 
amusing  unanimity,  '*  It  was  not  the  $500,  but  Judge 
White." 

But  they  will  not  be  troubled  in  that  way  much  longer. 
Eleven  days  after  the  defeat  of  the  Prohibitory  Amend- 
ment  the  Supreme  Court  virtually  abolished  the  discre- 
tionary power  of  the  judges,  so  that  it  is  now  obligatory 
upon  them  to  issue  licenses  to  many  applicants  whom 
they  would  have  once  refused.  *  Xow  a  great  cry  is  rising 
from  Pennsylvania  because  of  this  decision.  But  why  ? 
Therj.  still  have  High  License.  TVe  have  been  told  all 
this  time  that  it  was  High  License  that  was  keeping  down 
the  number  of  saloons.  Let  it  go  on  keeping  them  down  ! 
A  citizen  of  Germantown  is  quoted  as  saying,  ^*  Up  to 
this  time  we  have  had  but  one  saloon  on  this  side  of  the 


*  310  licenses  have  been  granted  in  Pittsburgh  for  1890.     The  num- 
ber in  Philndelphia  is  not  known  at  the  time  this  book  Roes  to  presK. 


74  ECONOMICS   Of    PROHIBITION. 

ward,  but  under  this  decision  next  jear  we  shall  have 
them  by  tlie  score."  But  they  still  have  the  High  Li- 
cense. It  is  just  as  high  as  ever.  The  Supreme  Court 
decision  has  not  touched  the  license.  Let  us,  then,  have 
a  fair  and  honest  confession  at  last  that  it  has  not  hee/i 
the  High  Licetise  th(it>  was  doing  the  work,  which  has 
been  so  persistently  attributed  to  it.  The  good  has  been 
done  chiefly  by  that  discretionary  power  of  tlie  judges 
which  this  decision  practically  annuls,  and  not  by  the 
High  License,  which  still  continues  in  force,  though  all 
Pennsylvania  now  admits  it  cannot  do  the  work. 

From  whatever  cause,  the  number  of  arrests  for  drunk- 
eimess  and  crime  are  now  rapidly  increasing  in  the  cities 
of  Pennsylvania.  Whether  arrests  were  avoided  before 
the  vote  on  the  Prohibitory  Amendment,  or  whether  the 
saloon-keepers  have  become  more  reckless  since  its  de- 
feat, these  are  the  facts  (we  quote  from  the  Political 
Prohibitionist  of  1889)  ; 

**  It  is  not,  however,  the  effect  of  the  Brooks  Law  in  decreasing  the 
number  of  saloons  that  is  to  be  taken  as  the  test  of  the  temperance 
value  of  the  measure.  To  ascertain  whether  it  operated  to  promote 
temperance,  the  police  records  of  the  various  cities  must  be  studied. 
Let  us  first  examine  the  records  in  the  only  two  counties  where  there 
was  a  very  large  reduction  in  the  number  of  saloons — Philadelphia 
and  Allegheny  counties-  the  first  including  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
and  the  second  including  the  cities  of  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny. 

PHILADELPHIA,  PITTSBUBOH,  AND   ALLEGHENY. 

"  The  Brooks  Law  took  efiEect  in  Philadelphia  June  Ist,  1888.  The 
following  comparative  figures  are  furnished  by  Joshua  L.  Baily  :  * 


♦  Mr.  Baily  was  very  prominently  connected  with  the  eflEorts  to 
secure  the  restrictions  of  the  Brooks  Law.  He  has  carefully  watched 
its  workings  in  Philadelphia.  He  said  in  Thi  Voice  for  January  Slst, 
1889  : 

"  That  there  has  been  a  diminution  in  drunkenness  or  in  .the  con- 
sumption of  liquors  at  all  in  jirnportion  to  the  decrease  in  the  num- 


HIGH   LICENSE   AS   RESTRICTION.         ,  76 

Commitments  to  County  Prieon  in  corresponding  months  of  1887 
and  1888  : 

1887.  1888.     Decreaae  In  1888. 

June 2,737  1,5§3  1,174 

July 2,728  1,645  1,083 

August 2,736  1,817  919 

September 2,755  1,904  851 

October 2,598  1,526  1,072 


Total 13,554  8,455  5,099 

Commitments  to  House  of  Correction  in  corresponding  months  of 
1887  and  1888  : 

1887.  1888  Decrease  in  1888. 

June  490  320  170 

July 502  281  221 

August 590  495  95 

September 540  380  160 

October 631  437  194 

Total 2,663  1,823  840 

The  number  of  Sunday  commitments  to  the  Philadelphia  County 
Prison,  as  ofl&cially  reported  on  the  following  Monday  mornings, 
were  : 

June  1,  1887,  to  Nov.  1,  1887 679 

June  1,  1888.  to  Nov.  1,  1888 194 

Decrease  under  the  restraining  act 485 


ber  of  saloons  no  one  would  have  the  temerity  to  claim.  Indeed, 
there  is  an  absence  of  proof  that  there  has  been  any  diminution 
whatever  in  the  consumption  of  liquors,  while  it  is  conceded  on  all 
sides  that  the  parties  holding  the  licenses,  with  perhaps  a  very  few 
exceptions,  are  doing  a  greatly-increased  business,  many  of  them 
having  doubled  and  some  of  them  increased  their  sales  many  fold. 
They  are  enjoying  a  monopoly,  and  there  are  many  of  them  who 
would  rather  pay  a  largely  increased  license  fee  than  have  that  mo- 
nopoly infringed.  The  efforts  to  have  the  present  law  repealed  or 
essentially  modified  do  not  come  from  this  class,  but  come  mostly 
from  those  who  have  been  shut  out  of  the  business  and  who  desire 
to  regain  the  licenses  of  which  they  have  been  deprived.  ...  I 
have  thus  endeavored  to  show  the  character  and  purposes  of  the  re- 
straining act  of  1887,  and  its  results,  as  far  as  T  have  been  able  to 
ascertain  them.  I  think  it  must  be  apparent  that  whatever  good  has 
come  from  the  law  is  to  be  attributed  to  its  restraining — shall  I  not 
say  prohibitory  ? — features,  and  that  there  is  no  ground  whatever  for 
the  claim  that  some  have  set  up,  that  these  good  results  have  been 
reached  thrnncrh  Hiqh  Lirenae." 


76 


ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 


The  commitments  of  women  were  : 

Junel,  1887,  to  Nov.  1,  1887 74 

June  1,  1888,  to  Nov.  1,  1888 21 

Decrease 53 

**  Apparently  a  large  decrease  of  crime  was  effected  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia.  But  was  it  really  the  Brooks  Law  that  wrought  the 
change,  and  are  the  Philadelphia  figures  to  be  accepted  as  modifying 
the  unfavorable  testimony  from  other  High  License  cities?  If  so, 
similar  and  even  greater  changes  for  the  better  ought  to  have  been 
accomplished  in  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny,  for  the  restrictions  of 
the  Brooks  Law  were  applied  more  rigidly  there  than  in  Philadelphia. 

"  But  the  official  figures  for  Pittsburgh,  furnished  by  the  authori. 
ties  of  that  city,  show  as  follows  : 

License  No.  of  Total  Arrests  for 

Year,  fee.  saloons.  arrests.        drunkenness. 

1887  $100-300*       l,500f  8,565  1,914 

1888  500  244  10.443  2.123 
Incr.  in  '88      400-200         l,256fdecr.    1,878  199 

And  the  figures  for  Allegheny  also  show  an  actual  increase  in  the 

total  number  of  arrests  as  well  as  in  the  arrests  for  drunkenness  and 

disorderly  conduct.     These  figures  are  furnished  by  Henry  Hunt. 

shager,  Mayor's  Clerk  : 

Arrests  Arrests, 
for  for 

License  No.  of         Total         drunk  disorderly 

Year.  fee.  saloons,      arrests.      enness.  conduct. 

1883  $100-300t  ...  1,992        723  841 

1884  100-300t  ...  2,945  780  1,042 

1885  100-3001  ...  2.868  794  1,114 

1886  100-300+         ...  2,575  790  1,030 

1887  100-300{         363  3,081  918  1,321 
Ayerage  for  above  five  years  : 

$100-300t  ...  2,692        801         1.069 

1888  500  78         3,042        894         1.192 
iQcr.  in '88  400-200           285  deer.  350  93  123 

'*  During  the  year  following  the  great  reduction  in  the  number  of 
saloons  in  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny,  the  Pittsburgh  newspapers 
frequently  spoke  of  the  great  increase  of  unlawful  selling  and  of  the 
failure  of  the  law  to  diminish  drunkenness.  The  Pittsburgh  Com- 
mercial OazeUe  said,  December  13tb,  1888  : 


*  $100  for  beer  only  ;  $300  for  strong  liquors. 
X  $100  for  beer  saloons  ;  $300  for  strong  liquors. 


f  Approximate. 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    UKSTRICTION.  77 

**  *  The  magnitude  of  the  illegal  liquor  traffic  is  really  astonishing. 
There  is  scarcely  an  alley  or  a  hide  atreet  in  any  of  the  wards  of  the 
lower  part  of  the  city,  as  well  as  on  the  South  Side,  that  does  not 
contain  from  one  to  twenty  groggeries,  where  beer  and  whiskey  are 
sold  in  defiance  of  the  law.  To  publish  a  complete  list  of  these 
"  saloons"  would  require  several  columns  of  an  ordinary -sized  news- 
paper. A  legalized  seller  when  asked  yesterday  if  he  .was  aware  of 
the  violations  going  on,  said  :  "  Yes,  certainly  1  am,  but  what  am  I 
going  to  do  about  it  ?  1  paid  the  county  $500  to  protect  my  business, 
but  yet  I  see  men  selling  all  around  me  without  license.  1  can't  inform 
on  them  htcause  such  a  course  would  injure  my  trade.  The  people  who 
sympathize  with  the  lawbreakers  would  not  patronize  me  if  I  made 
a  fuss  over  the  unjustnes?  of  my  having  to  pay  for  what  others  are 
doing  without  paying.'  " 

The  same  paper  said,  April  8th,  1889  ; 

** '  If  the  drunkenness  yesterday  [Sunday]  can  be  taken  as  a  stand- 
ard, more  drunkenness  is  visible  to  the  church-goer,  as  well  as 
others,  on  Sunday  than  in  the  days  of  low  license  and  free  whiskey, 
and  this  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  police  are  vigilant  and  deter- 
mined to  crush  out  the  *'  speak-easies. "  There  were  a  good  many 
drunken  men  on  the  streets  of  Allegheny  last  night.  They  staggered 
along  in  pairs,  and  people  wondered  how  they  got  their  whiskey  on 
Sunday.* 

•    RESULTS   IN    OTHER   CrnES.* 

**  In  all  the  other  cities  of  Pennsylvania  that  have  been  heard  from 
intemperance  and  crime  have  increased  under  the  Brooks  Law. 

"  Scranton.—B.  R.  Wade,  Chief  of  Police  of  Scranton,  reports  for 
his  city  as  follows  : 

Year. 

1883  Low  License. 

1884 

1885 

1886 

1887 

1888  High  License. 

"  A  glance  shows  that  the  increase  of  arrests  in  Scranton  under 
High  License  has  been  frightful.  Before  the  Brooks  Law  went  into 
effect  the  license  fee  in  that  city  was  only  $60  for  hotels  and  $20  for 
restaurants.  Then  in  1888  a  uniform  fee  of  $300  was  charged— five 
times  as  much  as  the  highest  former  rate.  But  the  arrests  in  the 
High  License  year  of  1888,  as  compared  with  the  last  full  year  of  Low 


No.  of  arrests 

Total 

for  drunk- 

Disorderly 

arrests. 

ennetis. 

conduct. 

864 

720 

22 

938 

795 

24 

1,400 

537 

139 

1,465 

1.090 

86 

l,266f 

999f 

71+ 

1,860 

1,396 

111 

*  For  farther  information  see  The  Voice  for  May  30th,  1889. 
+  Xine  months  onlv. 


78  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

License  (1886),  show  the  following  percentages  of  increase  ;  Total 
arrests,  twenty-seven  per  cent, ;  arrests  for  drunkenness,  twenty-eight 
per  cent.;  arrests  for  disorderly  conduct,  thirty-nine  per  cent. 

**  Wilkesbarre. — The  Wilkesbarre  Record  gives  the  following  com- 
parative figures  of  arrests  in  that  city  for  two  Low  License  years  and 
two  High  License  years,  each  year  ending  on  the  31st  of  March  : 

Low  License.  High  License. 

1886.        1887.  1888.        1889. 

Total  arrests 1,846  1,711  2,072  1,844 

"       (males) 1,688  1,560  1,876  1,690 

"      (females)  ...  157  151  196  854 

Drunk 624  660  1,084  766 

Disorderly 580  446  429  400 

Assault 212  189  239  234 

"  Lancaster. — The  Chief  of  Police  of  this  city  recently  sent  a  letter 
to  the  Philadelphia  Press  (printed  in  that  paper  February  24th,  1889), 
in  which  he  said  : 

*'  *  Crime  is  seemingly  on  the  increase  as  our  population  increases. 
Drunkenness  and  petty  larceny  are  prevalent  offences.  Prostitution 
is  on  the  increase.  Drunkenness  among  women  is  on  the  increase. 
"We  find  by  experience  that  we  have  much  trouble  with  young  men 
and  girls  under  or  about  arriving  at  age,  who  are  intoxicated  and 
disorderly  on  our  streets,  through  receiving  intoxicating  drinks,  not 
from  licensed  saloons,  but  in  hell-holes  known  here  as  "  beer  clubs," 
or  in  houses  where  beer  is  delivered  in  quantities.  Many  of  these 
young  people  are  frequently  of  very  respectable  parents.  We  have 
time  and  again  asked  young  girls,  when  having  them  under  arrest, 
the  cause  of  their  condition,  and  invariably  the  answer  has  been 
*' drink."' 

"  Reading.— Chietot  Police  Mahlon  Shaaber,  in  The  Voice  for  April 
18th,  1889,  gave  the  following  statistics  :*' 

No.  of  arreetB 

Total              for  drunk-  Disorderly 

Year.                                          arrests.             ennese.  conduct. 

1883  Low  License.                1,141               257  226 

1884  "  1,088  374  228 

1885  '•  1.146  37ft  135 
1880        "                              1.194                575  83 

1887  "  1.107  399  100 

1888  High  License.  1;346  358  120 

The  latest  information  on  the  subject  comes  from  the 
Agent  of  the  Law  and  Order  League,  under  date  of  Jan- 
uary 5th,  1890,  as  follows  : 


HIGH    LICENSE   AS   RESTRICTION.  79 

PITTSBUEGH'S   700    "SPEAKEASIES." 

THS  1.0£NT  OF  THE  LAW  AND  06DEB  LEAGUE  OV   THE  WOBEINGS  OF  TEE 
BROOKS  LAW. 

There  are  jast  92  licensed  (roloons  in  Pittsbargh  paying  the  $500 
fee  under  the  Brooks  High  License  Law,  but  it  is  not  an  easy  matter 
to  give  the  exact  number  of  "  speak-easies"  or  unlicensed  saloons  iu 
operation,  for  the  reason  that  the  business  of  these  is  conducted  with 
such  caution  and  secrecy  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  gain  entrance 
to  them  unless  introduced  by  some  of  their  regular  patrons  or 
through  detectives  cunning  in  ascertaining  their  raps  and  passwords 
or  obtaining  keys  when  they  are  distributed  to  customers. 

As  the  Agent  of  the  Law  and  Order  League,  and  as  a  licensed  de- 
tective empowered  to  employ  detectives,  I  have  prosecuted  about 
150  proprietors  of  "  speak-easies"  since  May  1st,  1888,  for  selling  on 
Sunday,  a  fine  of  $50  and  costs  being  imposed  under  the  Act  of  1855, 
which,  providentially,  was  not  repealed  by  the  Brooks  High  License 
Law.  Many  of  these  quit  the  business.  Others  continued  selling, 
and  were  prosecuted  under  the  Brooks  Act,  but  the  composition  of 
our  grand  juries  is  such  that  nearly  all  the  bills  were  ignored  and 
the  costs  imposed  upon  me.  One  or  two,  however,  languish  in  the 
■workhouse  as  a  result  of  these  prosecutions. 

But  to  return  to  the  subject.  The  police  authorities  of  the  city, 
through  Inspector  McAleese,  claim  that  they  have  a  list  of  over  700 
**  speak  easies"  with  the  locations  and  testimony  to  convict,  but, 
dog-in-the-manger  like,  they  will  neither  prosecute  themselves  nor 
furnish  the  information  to  any  one  who  will.  These  '*  speak-easies" 
flourish  under  the  giiiso  of  "boarding,"  "rooms  to  let,"  grocery 
stores,  and  in  cellars,  garrets,  and  stables,  and  run  very  secretly. 

We  are  in  a  most  deplorable  state.  Our  county  detective  an- 
nounces annually  or  oftener  that  he  is  just  getting  ready  to  wipe  out 
the  "  speak  easies, "  but  we  never  hear  of  any  results.  Our  police 
are  the  creatures  of  a  ring  whose  political  power  is  perpetuated  by 
the  liquor  element,  and,  as  a  consequence,  when  it  does  strike  a  blow 
at  the  unlicensed  liquor-dealer  it  is  generally  directed  against  a  man 
who  has  no  political  pull  or  a  poor  woman.  One  word  from  the 
Chief  of  the  Department  of  Public  Safety  would  exterminate  the 
"  speak-easy,"  but  the  ring,  whose  creature  he  is.  says  to  him,  "  Thus 
far  shalt  thou  go,  but  no  farther." 

From  the  Brooks  Law  or  any  other  license  law,  high  or  low,  good 
Lord,  deliver  us. 

A.  WisHART,  Agent  Law  and  Order  League. 


80  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION'. 

With  this  showing  of  the  results  of  the  Brooks  Law, 
the  star  example  of  the  benefits  of  High  License,  we  are 
content  to  rest  our  case  ;  and  we  protest  that  nowhere 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  has  High  License  yet  been  shown 
to  have  value  as  a  restriction  in  reducing  the  evils  of  in- 
temperance. 

Many  thoughtful  people  still  have  one  ground  of  in- 
credulity regarding  such  statements,  even  when  the  evi- 
dence is  perfectly  clear.  '^  How  is  it  possible  ?"  they 
exclaim.  **  We  can  see  how  the  fewer  saloons  may, 
perhaps,  sell  as  much  liquor.  But  how  can  they  sell 
more  ?  Above  all,  how  is  it  conceivable  that  they  should 
produce  more  drunkenness  ?" 

Well,  we  think  we  can  explain  even  that.  Let  us 
take  the  dry-goods  business  for  an  illustration.  Now, 
in  any  city  reduce  the  number  of  establishments  one  half 
— not  by  decay  of  trade,  but  by  sharp  legal  enactment. 
Those  that  remain  will  at  once  double  their  business. 
They  will  not  nearly  double  their  expenses.  They  will 
have  a  splendid  margin  of  profit.  They  will  have  the 
power  of  concentrated  capital.  They  will  begin  to  in- 
troduce more  elegant  goods  in  greater  variety.  The  lady 
who  goes  in  to  make  some  simple  purchase  finds  herpelf 
in  the  midst  of  an  animated  scene.  All  around  her  are 
goods  whose  very  sight  is  a  temptation.  Among  the 
crowd  are  friends  admiring  and  buying.  The  increased 
variety,  the  better  assortment,  are  attractive.  The  prob- 
ability is  that,  if  she  has  the  money,  she  will  buy  far 
more  than  she  thought  of  doing.  A  country  pastor 
walked  with  the  writer  through  a  great  metropolitan 
dry-goods  store.  On  coming  out,  he  said  :  **  I  don't 
know  how  it  is,  but  my  wife  and  T  came  here  one  morn- 
ing and  spent  about  ^15,   and  when   we  got  home  we 


HIGH    LICENSE    AS    RESTRICTION.  81 

made  up  our  minds  tluit  if  we  liad  gone  to  our  little 
home  store  we  should  have  spent  less  money,  and  while 
we  might  not  have  bought  such  elegant  things,  we  should 
have  got  more  nearly  what  we  wanted.  The  abundance 
and  elegance  here  are  bewildering." 

So  it  is  in  the  High  License  saloon.  The  closing  of  ^ 
many  throws  the  whole  trade  into  tlie  number  that  remain. 
As  shown  in  the  St.  Paul  letter  before  quoted, the  increased 
expense,  inchiding  th«  license,  bears  no  proportion  to  the 
increased  trade.  All  observers  agree  that  the  saloons  soon 
begin  to  ^^  put  on  a  great  deal  of  style. "  Tlie}*  introduce 
plate-glass,  carving  and  gilding,  oil  paintings  and  bevelled 
mirrors  and  skilled  musicians.  In  the  evening  they  are 
all  ablaze  with  light.  The  man  not  caring  very  much 
for  a  drink,  who  would  pass  by  the  poor,  plain  saloon,  or, 
if  he  went  in,  simply  take  a  drink  and  pass  on,  is  at- 
tracted by  all  this  glare  and  glitter.  In  that  crowd  he  is 
pretty  sure  to  find  friends.  He  steps  in  for  just  one 
drink.  There  is  merry  talk  and  cheer  all  around  him. 
It  is  pleasant  to  stay.  First  one  acquaintance  asks  him 
to  drink,  then  another.  He  is  introduced  to  new  ac- 
quaintances, and  must  drink  with  them.  After  drinking 
with  one  it  is  a  slight  and  an  affront  not  to  drink  with 
another.  After  being  ''  treated,"  it  is  stingy  not  to 
'^  treat."  The  man  who  went  in  for  one  drink  takes  a 
dozen*and  comes  out  drunk.  Perhaps  as  the  stimulant 
mounts  to  his  brain  he  quarrels  with  some  one.  In  a 
great,  drinking  crowd  there  is  always  likely  to  be  some  man 
*^  fiojhtino: drunk."  Then  there  is  ^'  disorderlv  conduct," 
and,  perhaps,  a  murder.  In  a  word,  the  more  attractive 
the  saloons  are  made,  the  worse  they  are.  Thousands  of 
men — and,  what  is  worse,  thousands  of  boys — who  would 
pass  the  *'  doggeries"  with  utter  scorn  will  be  drawn  into 


82  KCONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

the  gilded  saloon,  and  where  the  crowd  is  thickest,  tempta- 
tions to  intoxication  are  thickest,  too.  Thns  it  is  easy  to 
see  why  the  arrests  for  drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct 
should  be  more  numerous  in  High  License  than  in  Low 
License  cities,  as  the  official  reports  show  that  they  are. 
/  As  regards  reducing  the  evils  of  intemperance,  High 
License  does  not  restrict. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HIGH    LICENSE    AND   THE    CONSUMER. 

"  The  tax  on  spirits  oppresses  no  one.  It  is  paid  only  by  the  con- 
sumer."— James  G.  Blaine,  Letter  to  the  Philadelphia  Press,  Novembtr 
22d,  1882. 

**  Who  pays  the  license  ?  Op  coubse  the  consumeb  !  For  the  big 
and  rich  marble  palace  tavern-keeper,  it  [High  License]  is  a  sort  of 
additional  revenue.  He  can  easily  charge  five  cents  more  for  whis- 
key. That  gives  him  for  every  one  hundred  drinks  sold  $5,  while  his 
daily  license  at  the  rate  of  $500  is  but  $1.66,  and  of  $1,000  but  $3.32. 
Of  course  no  whiskey-drinker  will  object  to  pay  five  cents  more  for  a 
drink  under  High  License.  That  explains  why  not  a  few  of  the 
tavern-keepers  favor  High  License.*' — Wa^hmglon  Sentinel  {Brewers' 
Organ),  March  3d,  1888. 

That  the  consumer  does  pay  the  entire  hquor  tax  or 
h  cense,  as  the  above  quotations  show,  appears  further 
from  the  frequent  argument  that  to  repeal  the  United 
States  tax  would  be  *'  to  flood  the  country  with  cheap 
whiskey" — that  is  to  say,  it  is  the  tax  which  keeps  it 
from  being  cheap  now.  The  producer  having  to  pay  a 
tax,  gets  it  out  of  the  consumer  by  raising  the  price  of 
the  product.  It  is  the  same  with  the  State  assessments.  */ 
All  the  liquor-seller  pays  or  has  to  pay  is  what  he  gets 
from  those  who  buy  of  him. 

Mike  Mulligan,  newly  landed,  starts  a  saloon  on  §50 
borrowed  from  his  cousin  who  has  been  here  a  little 
longer.  Soon  he  repays  the  loan,  then  buys  the  ])uild- 
ing,  then  a  corner  lot,  builds  him  a  house,  and  has  money 
to  lend.     Where  has  it  all  come  ^rom  ?     Out  of  the 


84  rX'ONOMlCS    (jF    PKUHIBITIOX. 

jDOckets  of  the  poor  fellows  who  have  drunk  at  his  bar  ; 
out  of  the  mouths  and  the  very  life  of  their  wives  and 
children.  Every  cent  the  State  can  wring  from  liim 
comes  from  the  same  source.  When  it  collects  its  High 
License  revenue,  then,  the  State  is  gathering  in  the  food 
which  the  drunkard's  wife  and  children  should  eat,  the 
shoes  which  should  cover  their  bare  and  bleeding  feet, 
the  fuel  which  should  warm  their  chilly  rooms,  the  bed- 
ding which  should  cover  them  in  the  bitter  nights.  Some 
have  argued  that  this  is  cruel.  But  there  is  another  con- 
sideration.    It  is  unprofitable. 

IT    DESTROYS    THE    WEALTH-PRODUCING    QUALITIES 

of  a  people.  The  very  thing  that  makes  slave  labor  un- 
profitable is  that  the  slave  has  no  motive.  His  coarse 
clothing  and  daily  hoe-cake  are  all  he  will  get  anyway. 
Passing  through  Baltimore  early  iu  the  war,  the  writer 
saw  a  negro  sawing  wood  with  such  imperceptible  motions 
that  the  Yankee  boy  burst  out,  **  Why,  I  never  saw  a 
man  work  so  slowly  in  all  my  life.  I  don't  see  how  he 
can."  My  father  answered,  **  That  man  is  a  slave.  It's 
of  no  use  for  him  to  work  any  faster  ;  he  would  make 
nothing  if  he  did."     Hence  the  paralysis  of  slavery. 

Hence,  too,  the  paralysis  of  drink.  All  the  inspiration 
a  man's  home  might  be  to  him  it  ceases  to  be,  and  be- 
comes an  oppression  and  a  reproach  when  he  has  made 
it  wretched.  There  is  little  to  rouse  the  patriot  in  the 
old  heroic  stanza  if  you  make  it  read. 

Strike  for  yonr  tenement  rooms  without  fires  ! 
Strike  for  the  wife  that  in  rags  retires, 
Strike  for  the  babe  that  starving  expires, 
Saloons  and  a  License  Land  I 

When  many  families  have  reached  this  point,  oppor- 


HIGH    LICENSE   AND   THE   CONSUMER.  85 

tunities  of  work  are  offered  in  vain.  A  correspondent 
of  the  New  York  Tribune^  of  May  16th,  1883,  writing 
from  Slieffield,  England,  where,  he  says,  beer  is  easier  to 
get  than  water,  writes  as  follows  : 

HOW  THE  WOilKMEN  LIVE. 

Said  Dr.  Webster,  wbo  has  been  United  States  Consul  at  Shef- 
field for  twelve  years  : 

'*  People  earning  their  pounds  a  week  are  actually  contented  to  live 
year  after  year,  perhaps,  without  a  bedstead,  and  in  just  such  homes 
as  you  have  described." 

**  How  do  you  account  for  this?"  I  inquired. 

"  The  workmen  here,"  he  replied,  "  do  not  have  the  same  ambition 
that  our  artisans  at  home  have.  They  have  no  desire  to  rise.  If 
they  can  get  enough  to  keep  them  in  bacon,  bread,  and  6e«r  they 
are  content.  They  indulge  in  betting  and  drinkiiKj.  For  instance, 
the  grinders  are  a  well  paid  class  of  men,  and  just  now  the  hollow- 
grinding  branch  of  that  business  is  having  a  boom.  They  could 
easily  earn  £3  a  week.  But  they  won't  work.  Saint  Monday  must 
be  kept,  and  Saturday  very  little  work  is  done,  and  the  result  is,  as 
a  large  manufiicturer  told  me  the  other  day,  that  the  employers  are 
obliged  to  send  thousands  of  dozens  of  razors  to  Germany  in  blank 
to  be  ground,  while  Sheffield  men  are  drinking,  dog-fighting,  and 
betting.  They  seem  to  have  but  little  care  for  the  future.  Many  of 
them  contribute  to  a  biirial  society  and  a  sick  fund,  and  they  know 
that  if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst  the  workhouse  stands  ready  to 
receive  them." 

Such  is  a  people  from  whom  all  motive,  except  the 
desire  for  intoxicants,  has  perished. 

For  this  state  of  things  increasing  wages  bring  no  re- 
lief. Of  the  working  people  of  England,  Mrs.  Mary 
Bayly  writes  :  * 

"  The  five  years  which  preceded  1877  were  a  time  of  onusual  pros- 
parity  in  the  way  of  earning  money  ;  work  was  comparatively  plen- 
tiful and  wages  high.  During  those  years  the  increase  in  the  consump- 
tion of  intoxicating  drink  was  enormous ;    the  home  consumption  of 


Gustafson,  "  Foundation  of  Death,"  p,  252. 


86  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

cotton  goods  loent  down  eight  per  cent.  Those  -who  watched  the 
homes  of  the  poor  during  those  dreadful  years  state  that  their  moral 
condition  then  fell  to  a  lower  point  than  had  ever  been  known  be- 
fore. There  were  happy  exceptions  not  a  few  ;  but  to  the  vast  ma- 
jority the  large  sums  earned  brought  rather  a  diminution  than  an 
increase  of  all  that  is  worthy  the  name  of  prosperity." 

How  bitter  to  wives  and  children  must  have  been 
those  increased  earnings  with  no  increase  of  comfort, 
but  only  increased  degradation  of  the  bread-winner  in- 
stead ! 

The  National  Labor  Tribune  says  : 

"  The  injurious  effects  of  intemperance  on  industry  are  found  by 
investigation  to  be  extinction  of  disposition  for  practising  any  use- 
ful art  or  industrious  occupation.  Such,  indeed,  will  be  found  to  be 
the  universal  tendency  of  this  vice.  Those  who  indulge  in  strong 
drink  have  little  inclination  or  even  capacity  for  improvement. 
Selfishness  and  apathy  predominate  in  the  character  of  the  drunkard, 
and  feelings  of  amendment,  however  frequently  they  may  arise,  are 
(juickly  dissipated  in  the  love  of  sensual  gratification.  '* 

In  this  traffic  the  consumer  should  be  called  the  con- 
sumee.  It  is  the  man  that  is  consumed,  and  not  the  liquor. 
Alcohol  burns  the  red  corpuscles  from  the  blood,  the  grip 
from  the  muscles,  the  iron  steadiness  from  the  nerves ; 
and,  with  a  certain  Satanic  selection,  paralyzesand  dries  up 
the  highest  and  finest  nerve-centers  of  the  brain  till  love, 
hope,  ambition,  energy,  enterprise  fade.  Above  all,  the 
majestic  will  power  dies,  and  such  gleams  of  good  as  re- 
main are  powerless  for  want  of  that  controlling  energy 
to  put  them  into  action  and  hold  them  to  the  mark.  No 
man  accomplishes  anything  great  without  an  intense  de- 
tennination  that  lasts  through  day  and  night,  through 
months  and  years.  But  intemperance  is  the  death  of  de- 
termination. This  was,  perhaps,  never  more  forcibly 
expressed  than  in  the  words  of  the  brilliant  and  gifted 
Charleft  Lamb  : 


HIGH    LICENSE   AND  THE   CONSUMER.  87 

'*  The  wftters  have  gone  over  me  ;  but  out  of  the  black  depths  conl  J 
I  be  heard,  I  would  cry  out  to  all  those  who  have  but  set  a  foot  in  the 
perilous  flood.  Could  the  youth  to  whom  the  flavor  of  his  first  wine 
is  delicious  as  the  opening  scenes  of  life,  or  the  entering  upon  some 
newly-discovered  paradise,  look  into  my  desolation,  and  be  made  to 
understand  what  a  dreary  thing  it  is  when  a  man  shall  feel  himself 
going  down  a  precipice  with  open  eyes  and  a  passive  will  ;  to  see  his 
destruction  and  have  no  power  to  stop  it,  yet  feel  it  all  the  way 
emanating  from  himself  ;  to  see  all  godliness  emptied  out  of  him, 
and  yet  not  be  able  to  forget  a  time  when  it  was  otherwise  ;  to  bear 
about  him  the  piteous  spectacle  of  his  own  ruin  ;  could  he  see  my 
fevered  eye — feverish  with  last  night's  drinking  and  feverish  for  to- 
night's repetition  of  the  folly  ;  could  he  but  feel  the  body  of  death 
out  of  which  I  cry — hourly  with  feebler  outcry— to  be  delivered  ;  it 
were  enough  to  make  him  dash  the  sparkling  beverage  to  the  earth 
in  all  the  pride  of  its  mantling  temptation." 

No,  do  not  think  we  are  going  to  be  pathetic  !  We 
simply  want  to  make  the  point  that  intemperance  strikes 
at  the  root  of  wealth-production.  To  this  we  have  im- 
portant industrial  testimony.  After  Massachusetts,  in 
1867,  repealed  her  prohibitory  law  and  substituted  li- 
cense, Oliver  Ames  &  Son,  of  North  Eastpn,  testified  : 
**  We  have  over  400  men  in  our  works  here.  We  find 
the  present  license  law  has  a  very  bad  effect  upon  them. 
Comparing  our  products  in  May  and  June,  1868,  with 
our  manufactures  for  the  same  months  of  1867,  we  find 
we  produced  eight  per  cent,  more  goods  with  315  men 
that  year  than  with  400  men  in  the  same  months  of  1868. 
We  attribute  this  falling  off  entirely  to  the  repeal  of  the 
prohibitory  law  and  the  present  greatly  increased  use  of 
intoxicating  liquors." 

Intemperance  also  destroys  the  spirit  and  habit  of  self- 
denial — the  spring  of  wealth.  It  is  an  old  story  that  it 
is  not  so  much  what  a  man  earns  as  what  he  saves  that 
makes  him  rich  or  poor.  Even  Mr.  Micawber  under- 
stood the  philosophy  which  he  could  never  practise. 


88  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

'**  My  other  piece  of  advice,'  said  Mr.  Micawber,  *  Copperfield, 
you  know.  Annual  income  twenty  pounds,  annual  expenditure  nine- 
teen, nineteen  six  ;  result,  happiness.  Annual  income  twenty  pounds, 
annual  expenditure  twenty  pounds  ought  and  six  ;  result,  misery. 
The  blossom  is  blighted,  the  leaf  is  withered,  the  god  of  day  goes 
down  upon  the  dreary  scene,  and — and,  in  short,  you  are  forever 
floored.     As  I  am  !  ' 

"  To  make  his  example  the  more  impressive,  Mr.  Micawber  drank 
a  glass  of  punch  with  an  air  of  great  enjoyment  and  satisfaction,  and 
whistled  the  College  Hornpipe." 

It  is  worth  noticing  that  Dickens,  who  was  by  no 
means  a  temperance  man,  but  painted  men  as  he  saw 
them,  always  represents  Mr.  Micawber  in  the  crises  of 
his  experience,  when  his  financial  affairs  were  at  some 
desperate  pass,  .with  a  bottle  sticking  out  of  his  pocket 
or  brewing  a  delicious  punch  on — somebody's — table. 

Saving  requires  self-denial,  and  intemperance  is  the 
death  of  self-denial,  and  renders  the  intemperate  man 
at  length  incapable  of  practising  it  in  any  form  or  for 
the  shortest  possible  time.  He  would  give  his  life  or 
his  soul  for*  a  drink.  Of  this  Tlie  London  Tid-Bits 
gives  the  following  striking  illustration  : 

A  COSTLY  "  BEER." 

A  GLASS   POE   AN   IDEA   WHICH    HAS   PAID    $200,000   SO   FAR. 

Two  hundred  thousand  dollars  may  seem  a  large  sum  for  a  small 
article,  but  it  was  virtually  paid  by  a  man  of  great  resources  who 
bad  an  ingenious  expedient  for  saving  the  horseflesh  of  the  world. 
About  ten  years  ago  a  veterinary  surgeon,  who  was  with  the  army  at 
Bombay,  found  that  the  excessive  heat  of  that  country  caused  the 
tops  of  the  horses'  necks  to  sweat  freely,  and  thereby  produce  sores 
under  the  leather  collar.  All  the  expedients  that  he  could  suggest 
were  of  no  avail  to  remedy  this  state  of  things.  One-fourth  of  the 
horses  used  for  draught  purposes  were  laid  up  by  what  is  called 
'•  sore  neck." 

This  "vet."  in  his  younger  days  had  studied  ohemistry,  and  he 


HIGH    LICENSE   AND   THE   CONSUMEK.  89 

found  that  snlphate  of  zino  was  the  best  and  almost  only  care  lor 
horses*  '*  sore  necks,"  but  the  difficulty  in  applying  this  preparation 
lay  in  the  fact  that  the  horses  had  to  rest  during  the  time  of  its  ap- 
plication,  otherwise  the  collar  would  rub  it  off,  and  there  was  no 
chance  for  the  horse's  recovery.  A  thought  struck  him  that  to  make 
a  zinc  pad  and  fit  it  under  the  collar  would,  at  any  rate,  prove  an 
ameliorative,  and  maybe  cure.  The  man,  though  ingenious  in  his 
way.  was  much  given  to  drink,  and  was  looked  upon  by  the  officers 
of  the  army  as  a  "  ne'er-do  weel "  with  bright  ideas.  While  this 
was  simmering  in  his  mind  and  before  he  had  put  it  into  an  actual 
test  he  happened  to  be  in  a  drinking  bar. 

His  finuuces  at  tbis  time  were  at  the  lowest  ebb,  for  his  future  was 
mortgaged  for  all  it  was  worth,  and  the  publican  refused  to  trust  him 
with  any  more  drinks.  An  American  drummer  happened  to  be  rep- 
resenting a  large  leather  house,  and  knew  a  good  deal  of  the  diffi- 
culty with  which  the  American  farmers  of  the  Southwest  had  to  con- 
tend. The  two  men  got  into  conversation,  and,  as  a  natural  result, 
the  veterinary  surgeon  spoke  of  the  idea  that  was  uppermost  in  his 
mind,  and  said  that  he  thought  he  knew  of  a  remedy  for  that  most 
troublesome  complaint  from  which  all  horses  in  hot  countries  sufiEered. 
The  American  was  perfectly  convinced  that  he  was  talking  to  a  man 
of  good  ideas  though  bad  principles,  and  asked  what  he  would  take 
for  the  idea. 

"  I  am  awfully  hard  up  and  can  get  no  more  drink  on  trust,  so  I 
will  give  you  the  idea  for  a  glass  of  beer.' ' 

"  Done  !"  said  the  other. 

The  American  at  once  saw  there  was  probably  millions  in  this,  and 
he  conceived  the  notion  that  the  matter  oozing  from  the  sores  on 
horses'  necks  would  corrode  the  pad  and  produce  sulphate  of  zinc — 
thus  the  disease  would  provide  its  own  remedy.  He  also  saw  that 
zinc,  being  a  non-conductor  of  heat,  would  keep  the  parts  cool.  The 
more  he  thought  of  it  the  more  he  liked  it,  and  although  his  business 
should  have  kept  him  in  Bombay  some  months  longer,  he  in  a  few 
days  took  the  first  steamship  to  Liverpool  and  then  to  Boston,  Ar- 
riving in  Boston,  he  threw  up  his  appointment  with  the  house  and 
started  the  manufacturing  of  zinc  pads,  after  obtaining  a  patent  for 
the  idea,  and  he  is  now  worth  $200,000.  These  zinc  pads  are  used 
in  every  country  on  earth,  and  are  the  greatest  blessing  the  farmer 
enjoys. 

The  story  bears  the  appearance  of  truth,  and  all  who 


90  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

have  seen  much  of  drinking  men  have  known  those  of 
whom  it  might  easily  have  been  true. 

The  following  forcible  words  of  Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie, 
of  Scotland,  are  taken  from  his  Memoirs,  Vol.  I.,  pp. 

378-879. 

"  Seven  years  of  my  ministry  were  spent  in  one  of  the  lowest  lo- 
calities of  Edinburgh  ;  and  it  almost  broke  my  heart,  day  by  day,  to 
see,  as  I  wandered  from  house  to  house,  and  from  room  to  room, 
misery,  wretchedness,  and  crime  ;  the  detestable  vice  of  drunken- 
ness, the  cause  of  all,  meeting  me  at  every  turn  and  marring  all  my 
efforts.  Nothing  ever  struck  me  more,  in  visiting  those  wretched 
localities,  than  to  find  that  more  than  half  of  these  families  were 
in  the  church-yard.  The  murder  of  innocent  infants  in  this  city  by 
drunkenness  *  out-Herods  Herod.'  I  believe  we  will  in  vain  plant 
churches  and  schools,  though  they  be  thick  as  trees  in  the  forest, 
until  this  evil  is  stopped." 

Let  any  one  say  what  (that  is  worthy  of  the  name  of 
civilization)  may  be  expected  of  a  man  with  a  drunken 
wife,  or  a  child  with  a  drunken  mother.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  a  good  wife  is  also  a  wealtli-producer, 
and  most  truly  so  when  she  gives  her  whole  time  to  the 
care  of  home,  liusl)and,  and  children.  Mrs.  Bayly,  in 
the  same  letter  previously  referred  to,  says  : 

"  I  have  persuaded  very  many  women  to  give  up  all  paid  labor 
and  to  devote  themselves  entirely  to  their  families.  I  can  recall  no 
instance  where  this  change  was  not  advantageous,  even  pecuniarily, 
for  the  waste  and  destruction  caused  by  neglected  children  arc  in- 
describable. Where  the  wife  has  to  earn  money  the  children  are 
usually  in  rags.  Just  a  few  indispensable  articles  of  clothing  are 
purchased  ready-made  at  a  slop-shop,  at  a  price  so  low  one  wonders 
how  anything  can  have  been  paid  for  making  up.  The  mother  at 
home  can  encourage  honest  trade  by  buying  decent  material  which 
she  makes  up  herself.  But  how  is  all  this  possible  while  thousands 
and  thou.nands  of  pounds  are  swept  into  the  publicans'  tills  every 
Saturday  and  Sunday  night?" 

In  his  papers  on  *'  How  the  Poor  Live/'  published 


IIK.II     IK  KXSK    AND    THK    ('ONSrMKK.  91 

during  the  siiininer  of  1883  in  the  Pictorial  Worlds  Mr. 

George  R.  Sims  says  : 

*'  The  gin  palaces  floarish  in  the  slams,  and  fortunes  are  made  ont 
of  men  and  women  who  seldom  know  where  to-morrow's  meal  is 
coming  from.  ...  A  copper  or  two,  often  obtained  by  pawning 
the  last  rag  that  covers  the  shivering  children  on  the  bare  floor  at 
home,  will  buy  enough  vitriol  madness  to  send  a  woman  home  so  be- 
sotted that  the  wretchedness,  the  anguish,  the  degradation  that  await 
her  Ihere  have  lost  their  grip." 

When  Macaulay's  *'  historian  from  New  Zealand  shall 
take  his  stand  on  a  broken  arch  of  London  Bridge  to 
sketch  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul,"  what  a  story  he  will  have 
to  tell  of  the  cause  of  the  ruin  !  How  future  centuiies 
will  wonder  at  the  tolerated  barbarities  of  the  nineteenth  ! 

Rich  and  poor  alike  should  consider  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  wealth-producing  qualities  which  we  have 
shown  to  be  due  to  intemperance  is,  from  an  economic 
standpoint, 

THE   DEADLIEST    INJURY    THAT    CAN    BE    DONE   TO  A  PEOPLE. 

It  is  a  deadlier  injury  than  even  the  actual  slaughter  of 
the  people.  The  first  Napoleon  drained  France  of  men, 
till  in  his  late  campaigns  he  had  to  implore  his  War  De- 
partment, *'  Send  me  no  more  boys." 

But  they  were  all  they  had  to  send.  Yet  if  the  de- 
struction once  stops — if  the  war  is  ever  over — the  men 
are  soon  replaced.  Ten  years  makes  every  boy  of  ten  a 
man.  It  is  the  standing  wonder  of  political  economists 
how  soon  a  land  recovers  from  desolating  war,  if  only  an 
industrious,  enterprising  people  are  left.  Look  at  our 
own  South  after  the  Civil  War.  Look  at  France  after 
the  Franco-German  War,  not  only  desolated  by  conquest, 
but  compelled  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  a  thousand  mill- 
ions for  the  privilege  of  being  desolated.     Yet  in  a  brief 


92  KCON'OMICS    OF    PROHIBITION'. 

tenn  of  years  the  iTidemnity  was  paid,  and  France  under 
republican  institutions  on  the  way  to  a  better  prosperity 
than  she  had  known  witliout  war  under  the  empire. 
But  if  the  wealth-producing  qualities  are  once  destroyed, 
vain  is  the  perfection  of  climate,  vain  the  fertility  of  the 
soil.  Some  of  the  fairiest  lands  on  earth  lie  desolate  un- 
der Turkish  misrule.  Egypt,  once  the  granary  of*  the 
world,  is  now  tramped  by  the  miserable  Fellaheen,  bare- 
ly owning  a  waist-cloth  and  a  rice-kettle.  False  methods 
of  revenue  more  than  all  else  hav^e  done  it.  The  Sultan 
and  the  Khedive  have  kept  up  their  rude  magnificence 
by  the  desolation  of  their  people,  till  they  can  no  longer 
do  that,  but  have  had  to  mortgage  their  kingdoms  to  the 
bankers  of  Europe.  No  nation  can  live  by  eating  out 
its  own  vitals,  for  the  time  will  come  when  it  will  need 
what  it  has  been  eating,  and  there  is  no  provision  in  the 
universe  for  supplying  vitals  to  order.  When  they  are 
once  consumed,  a  nation,  like  an  individual,  must  take  the 
consequences. 

In  the  case  of  intoxicants,  we  have  also  to  face  this 
further  danger  that 

THE    CONSUMER    WILL    BECOME  A    DESTROYER. 

The  National  Temperance  Advocate  sa-jB  ; 

*'  The  recent  formidable  mob8  of  the  unemployed  in  London  have 
an  ominous  significance.  The  drink  waste  in  Great  Britain  is  enor- 
mous, and  nothing  is  more  natural  under  such  circumstances  than 
that  there  should  be  great  poverty  and  suffering.  A  recent  report 
shows  that  the  poor  guardians  of  London  have  91,000  paupers  on  the 
parish  rolls  compared  with  71,000  for  the  corresponding  month  last 
year.  This  shows  that  the  London  '  prisoners  of  poverty '  are  in- 
creasing at  a  rapid  rate.  Beer  and  bad  trade  are  closely  linked  to- 
gether. Abolish  the  one  and  the  other  would  quickly  improve.  It 
is  impossible  for  the  people  of  any  country  tQ  waste  their  substance 


HIGH    LTCEXSE   AND   THE   CONSUMER.  03 

as  largely  as  in  Great  Britain  for  strong  drink  and  not  have  legitimate 
industries  greatly  paralyzed  thereby. " 

In  our  neglected  slums  are  generated  the  pestilence,  ^ 
the  panper,  and  the  criminal — worst  of  all  the  pauper  and 
criminal  by  hereditary  descent,  born  to  the  inheritance, 
and  not  to  be  lifted  out — a  savage  race  begotten  in  the 
very  heart  of  civih'zation,  forever  a  drain  upon  the  re- 
sources of  the  industrious  and  the  good,  a  standing  men- 
ace to  the  perpetuity  of  nations  and  of  civilization,  a 
peril  to  every  life  and  every  home.  The  Anarchists  of 
Chicago  met  in  saloons  to  prepare  for  the  fatal  Ilaymar- 
ket  massacre.  They  meet  in  saloons  now,  planning  to 
avenge  their  comrades  who  met  the  penalty  of  the  law. 
The  saloon  constantly  comes  to  the  front  in  the  Cronin 
murder  trial  of  the  same  city.     The  Standard  says  : 

*•  The  saloons  of  Chicago  were  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  Cronin 
(rial.  In  the  history  of  this  detestable  crime  it  played  an  important 
part,  as  in  all  other  like  cases.  It  is  there  that  murder  is  j)lanned, 
and  thither  murderers  resort  when  the  deed  is  done,  to  drown  in 
drink  any  slight  pain  of  conscience  they  may  feel.  But  this  inevit- 
able stain  upon  our  civilization  has  revealed  itself  in  a  new  way. 
A  poor  washerwoman  had  a  story  to  tell  of  overhearing  the  last  words 
of  the  murdered  physician,  his  cry  to  God  and  Jesus,  as  he  fell  under 
the  blows  which  met  him  as  he  entered  the  fatal  door.  The  attempt 
to  discredit  her  testimony  brought  to  light  some  of  her  own  sorrow- 
ful history.     We  quote  from  the  published  record : 

"  '  Q. — You  were  asked  by  the  lawyer  for  the  defence  if  you  had 
trouble  with  your  husband.  Will  you  tell  the  jury  what  the  trouble 
was?  [Objected  to,  overruled,  and  exception  taken.]  A. — My  hus- 
band had  lots  of  money  in  his  pocket  about  April  Ist,  I  went  to 
Ertel  and  said  to  him  :  *  Don't  give  my  husband  any  more  drink 
here.'  He  got  mad  and  took  his  revolver  and  drove  me  out.  I  ran 
out  in  the  street.  After  that  he  sold  my  husband  drink  and  kept 
him  there  four  days  and  five  nights  and  took  $470  out  of  his  pocket. 
That  was  the  cause  of  my  suit. 

*'  *  Q,— Counsel  asked  you  whether  you  had  not  been  kept  out  of 
your  house  on  two  occasions.  State  why?  A. — My  husband  was 
mad  because  I  sued  the  saloon-keeper,  and  he  put  a  new  lock  on  the 
door  and  locked  me  out  of  the  house.' 


94  ECONOMICS   QF   PROHIBITIOX. 

' '  The  suit  which  this  outrageously  abused  woman  brought  against 
Ertel  was  tried  before  a  Chicago  judge,  who  fined  him  $20 — the 
lightest  punishment  the  law  would  allow  !  What  is  to  be  done  with 
such  an  evil  as  this,  save  to  wipe  it  out  altogether?" 

Remember,  the  saloon  license  in  Chicago  is  $500. 

Let  us  be  sure  that  if  this  thing  goes  on  the  piper  is 
going  to  raise  his  price.  We  are  training  in  our  saloons 
an  army  of  ragged,  debauched,  conscienceless  victims, 
dead  to  every  worthy  ambition  and  tender  emotion,  unfit 
to  be  citizens  of  a  republic,  impossible  long  to  control  by 
the  ordinary  restraints  of  law.  If  this  work  goes  on  it 
means  in  the  near  future  a  standing  army.  When  virtue 
and  intelh'gence  are  gone  the  bayonet  must  come  in.  Se- 
curity must  be  had  from  somewhere.  A  standing  army, 
vast  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  our  territory  and  the 
populousness  of  our  cities,  will  be  an  enormous  drain  of 
revenue  beyond  any  statistics  which  can  now  be  arrayed. 
Its  heaviest  cost  cannot  be  given  in  cash.  It  will  mean 
the  downfall  of  our  liberty  in  a  military  despotism.  A 
nation  of  drunkards  will  need  a  Napoleon,  and  sober  men 
will  have  to  submit  to  him  as  the  only  refuge  from  the 
worse  tyranny  of  imbruted  mobs. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    HARVEST    OF     DEATH. 

*'  I  will  make  a  man  more  precious  than  fine  gold  ;  even  a  man  than 
the  golden  wedge  of  Ophir," — Isa.  13  :  12. 

"  For  among  my  people  are  found  wicked  men  :  they  lay  wait,  as  he 
that  setteth  snares  ;  they  set  a  trap,  they  catch  men." — Jer.  5  :  26. 

'*  Thou  land  devourest  up  men,  and  hast  bereaved  thy  nations." — 
Exk.  36  :  13. 

"  The  great  London  fever  of  1789  took  scarcely  anybody  but  drunk- 
ards and  tipplers.  Dr.  Cartwright,  of  New  Orleans,  says  the  yellow- 
fever  in  1806  took  5,000  drinking  men  before  it  touched  a  sober  man. 
In  the  United  Kingdom  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  one  visit 
of  cholera  swept  away  over  10,000  persons — not  half  a  dozen  teeto- 
talers in  that  number.  In  the  city  of  Montreal  360  teetotalers  had 
the  cholera,  and  but  one  of  them  died,  while  1,500  drinking  men  died 
of  the  disease." — New  Era. 

"  All  who  sell  liquors  in  the  common  way,  to  any  that  will  buy.  nro 
poisoners-general.  They  murder  His  Majesty's  subjects  by  whole- 
sale ;  neither  does  their  eye  pity  nor  spare.  They  drive  them  to 
hell  like  sheep.  And  what  is  their  gain  V  Is  it  not  the  blood  of  these 
men?  Who,  then,  would  envy  their  large  estates  and  sumptuous 
palaces  ?  A  curse  is  in  the  midst  of  them.  The  curse  of  God  is  in 
their  gardens,  their  groves  -a  fire  that  burns  to  the  nethermost  hell. 
Blood,  blood  is  there!  The  foundation,  the  floors,  the  walls,  the 
roof,  are  stained  with  blood." — John  }Vesley,  1760. 

When  the  Duke  of  Alvali  went  to  tlie  Netherlands, 
he  thought  he  had  liit  npon  the  most  brilliant  scheme  of 
revenue  ever  invented.  Words  could  not  express  his 
delight  and  triumph  at  its  facility.  His  only  wonder 
was  that  no  one  had  thought  of  it  before.     It  was  *'  pop- 


96  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

iilar,"  too — with  his  retainers  and  his  royal  master.  The 
King  had  screwed  out  all  the  money  he  dared  by  direct 
taxation,  yet  had  been  always  cramped  for  funds,  in  debt 
to  his  soldiers  and  his  servants,  and  with  a  grumbling 
l>eople  to  boot.  Alvah  relieved  him  instantly  of  all  this 
jierplexity  and  gave  him  more  money  than  he  ever  had 
before.  He  kept  his  troops  fat  and  well  fed,  with  gold 
rings  and  jewels  for  the  common  soldiers  to  gamble  over 
in  the  guard-room.  He  did  not  increase  the  taxes,  and 
— within  his  administration — nobody  grumbled.  His 
method  of  raising  a  revenue  was  sublime  in  its  simplici- 
ty and  directness.  It  was  simply  to  cut  off  the  head  of 
anybody  who  had  anything,  and  then  take  all  he  had. 
Taxes  of  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent,  became  contemptible  be- 
side this  ample  scheme.  It  is  said  that  the  President  of 
the  '^  Bloody  Council,"  which  conducted  the  details  of 
the  business,  suffered  from  terrible  nightmares,  in  which 
he  imagined  blood  to  be  dripping  from  the  walls  and 
furniture.  But  the  Duke  was  superior  to  any  such  sen- 
sitiveness, and  went  on  his  popular  and  prosperous  way. 
There  was  found,  however,  to  be  one  great  difhciilty 
with  this  invention.  Killing  the  producers  stops  pro- 
duction, and  where  production  puts  nothing  in,  not  even 
tyranny  can  get  anything  out.  The  number  of  rich  men 
is  limited,  and  when  they  are  decapitated  for  public  ex- 
penses the  supply  may  run  out.  As  this  fact  began  to 
appear  the  scheme  declined  in  popularity, 
i/  The  shrewder  Yankee,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  has 
hit  upon  an  ampler  scheme.  He  will  not  execute  the 
rich  meii — except  incidentally.  More  money  can  be 
made  out  of  the  wholesale  slaughter  of  the  middle  classes 
and  the  poor.  There  are  plenty  of  them.  The  supply 
will  not  soon  run  out. 


TIIK   HARVEST   OF    DEATH.  97 

To  maintain  that  revenue  requires  the  sltiu^hter  of 
60,000  men  every  year.  But  tlie  revenue  is  said  to  be 
*'  the  easiest  of  all  revenues  to  collect."  The  man  who 
is  killed  never  objects,  because  he  never  believes  he  is 
going  to  be  killed.  The  system  is  superior  to  electricity 
in  this  respect,  because  the  awful  chair,  with  its  straps 
and  wires,  plainly  speaks  to  the  condemned  of  coming 
doom.  But  the  saloon  gives  no  warning  that  disturbs  its 
victim.  He  talks  loudl}^  of  his  ''  personal  liberty," 
while  the  deadly  coils  are  fastened  around  him.  The 
man  who  kills  him  does  not  object,  because  he  makes  so 
much  in  the  process  that  he  can  easily  furnish  the  mod- 
erate revenue  the  Government  demands.  General 
Charles  H.  Grosvenor,  of  Ohio,  as  reported  in  the  New 
York  Tribune  of  1883,  said  of  the  Scott  Law  : 

"  It  is  simply  a  tax  law  which  permits  anybody  to  engage  in  the 
sale  of  liquors  and  beer  who  can  pay  the  tax.  ...  It  repeals 
the  statute  of  1854  (which  forbade  selling  to  be  drank  on  the  prem- 
ises), and  thereby  atfords  protection  to  the  liquor-seller.  While  it 
is  unpopular  with  the  brewers  of  beer  for  obvious  reasons,  it  is  pop- 
ular with  the  dealers  generally,  for  it  gives  them  a  quasi-respecta- 
bility.  What  will  be  the  effect  of  this  law  ?  There  will  probably  be 
12,000  payments  under  it.  and  $2,500,000  is  a  low  estimate  of  the 
money  that  will  flow  into  the  local  treasuries  of  Ohio  from  this  source. 
This  money  will  come  to  the  relief  of  the  overburdened  tax-payers  of 
the  State  as  the  quails  filled  up  the  camp  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
The  liquor-dealers  are  abundantly  able  to  pay  it,  and  those  who  do 
will  make  more  money  than  heretofore,  for  from  four  to  five  thousand 
dealers  will  be  compelled  to  shut  up  their  shops.  .  .  .  The  source 
of  revenue  is  inexhaustible  and  perennial." 

The  reference  to  the  quails  is  strikingly  appropriate, 
as  any  one  may  see  by  reading  the  account,*  which  con- 
cludes as  follows  : 


*  Num.  11  :  31-36. 


98  '    ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

*'  And  while  the  flesh  was  yet  between  their  teeth,  ere  it  was 
chewed,  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  the  people,  and 
the  Lord  smote  the  people  with  a  very  great  plague. 

"And  He  called  the  name  of  that  place  Kibroth  Hattaavah,  be- 
cause there  they  buried  the  people  that  lusted." 

Yes,  this  revenue  ends  in  the  graves  of  a  host. 

But  all  the  shocking  barbarities  of  the  old  Spaniard's 
tyranny  are  avoided.  There  is  no  Star-Chamber  trial, 
no  dreadful  scaffold,  no  gleaming  axe,  no  severed  heads, 
no  dripping  blood. 

The  killing  is  not  done  abruptly  in  an  instant,  but  hu- 
manely lengthened  out  through  a  long  term  of  years. 
Fathers  and  mothers,  wives  and  children,  become  gradu- 
ally used  to  the  sorrow  and  degradation,  and  when  the 
victim  finally  dies  there  is,  for  the  most  part,  no  sudden 
shock.  To  be  sure,  he  may  be  shot  or  stabbed  in  a  sa- 
loon, or  hanged  for  shooting  or  stabbing  some  one  else 
there.  He  may  meet  a  fatal  fall  on  the  way  home,  or 
freeze  to  death  in  some  neglected  alley.  But  even  these 
things  relatives  have  learned  to  anticipate  in  ma^iy  a 
dreary  day  and  wakeful  night  ;  and  they  only  happen  to 
a  small  fraction  of  the  00,000 — though,  of  course,  no  one 
can  tell  exactly  who  these  will  be.  But  for  the  most 
part  the  decline  is  gradual,  unless  attacks  of  delirium 
tremens  intervene  to  give  it  a  sensational  character,  of 
course  very  trying  to  the  feelings  of  friends,  but  not  sus- 
ceptible of  economic  valuation.  On  these  points  Gougli 
and  other  princes  of  the  platform  have  exhausted  elo- 
quence, till  American  business  men  have  hardened  them- 
selves into  profound  insensibility.  **  The  easiest  of  all 
revenues  to  collect"  is  a  sufficient  answer.  We  must 
view  these  things  philosophically.  Even  moralists  and 
ministers  tell  us  it  is  quite  incompetent  to  plead  the 
moral  guilt  of  murder  in  a  question  of  legislation.     This 


THE    HARVEST   OF    DEATH.  99 

may  be  urged  from  tlie  pulpit — the  saloon-keeper  does 
not  go  to  church  ;  or  in  the  religious  press — while  the 
saloon-keeper  reads  the  Police  Gazette.  But  when  we 
come  to  the  only  practical  way  in  which  the  public  sen- 
timent of  a  community  can  touch  the  liquor-seller — legis- 
lation— then  moral  considerations  are  quite  out  of  place. 
If  we  attempt  to  argue  that  to  take  the  mother's  boy, 
the  light  of  her  eyes  and  the  impulse  of  her  every 
heart-beat,  and  just  at  the  threshold  of  dawning  man- 
hood, when  all  her  tender  care  from  babyhood  might 
have  happy  and  rich  return,  entice  him  into  a  den  and 
lay  him  drunk  on  her  door-step,  and  to  carry  this  on 
through  years  till  she  sits  broken-hearted  by  the  grave, 
where  she  can  scarcely  weep  for  very  bitterness  of  sor- 
row— if  we  attempt  to  argue  that  this  should  be  stopped 
because  it  is  wicked,  learned  theologians  stop  us  short, 
and  tell  us  that  is  union  of  Church  and  State  !  These 
great  men  ought  to  know,  but  it  is  very  hard  for  plain 
people  to  understand.  They  insist,  however,  that  law 
can  deal  only  with  the  injury  to  society. 

Well,  we  are  prepared  to  take  the  matter  up  on  the 
hard,  cold,  economic  basis,  and  we  ask,  Have  you  ever 
considered 

THE   CASH    VALUE   OF   A   MAN  ? 

The  baby  a  year  old,  in  an  average  American  family 
of  moderate  means,  represents  an  investment  of  not  less 
than  §50,  which  may  easily  run  up  to  a  hundred.  If  we 
consider  the  mother's  time  worth  anything,  it  will  run 
beyond  that  amount.  For  if  she  were  engaged  in  sume 
remunerative  employment,  she  would  have  to  pay  from 
$2  to  $7  a  week  to  hire  done  what  she  does  for  her  child. 
Pier  necessarv  loss  of  time  from  her  work  for  its  sake 


/ 


100  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

might  be  a  much  heavier  expense.  Yes,  the  baby  boy 
a  year  old  must  be  vahied  at  $50.  For  each  of  the  next 
four  years  he  must  average  as  much — $250  for  the  first 
five  years.  For  the  next  ten,  expenses  increase.  There 
are  the  summer  and  winter  suits  larger  every  year — and 
how  they  do  wear  out  I  How  the  shoes  are  stubbed 
through  !  There  is  the  flannel  underclothing,  and  there 
are  the  overcoats  that  won't  stretch  as  he  grows,  even  if 
they  would  hold  together.  Then  the  food  to  keep  that 
stature  rising  and  that  machinery  in  motion — well, 
boarding-house  keepers,  who  ought  to  know,  would  as 
soon  board  a  man  as  a  hearty  twelve-year-old  boy  at  the 
same  table.  We  know  a  table  where  the  man  of  the 
family  is  flanked  by  two  sturdy  boys,  and  outflanked  in 
the  eating  at  every  meal. 

A  recent  number  of  the  Philadelphia  Hecord  gives  the 
following  very  interesting  statistics  of  the  actual  first 
cost  of  the  food  of  a  healthy  boy  : 

"Dr.  MoKinnon,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Mimico  Industrial 
School  in  Canada,  has  furnished  the  Toronto  Mail  with  an  interesting 
statement  on  the  subject.  There  are  108  boys  in  the  school,  who 
are  kept  in  good  bodily  health,  and  whose  subsistence  is  bought  in 
a  wholesale  way  that  would  somewhat  cheapen  the  cost  as  compared 
with  ordinary  household  expenditure.  The  boys  have  all  they  wish 
to  eat,  and  the  Superintendent's  accounts,  not  being  complicated  by 
expenses  for  sustenance  for  other  persons,  furnish  valuable  data  not 
otherwise  readily  obtainable.  The  following  statement  shows  the 
average  weekly  expenditure  per  boy  : 

Cents. 

Flour 18 

Oatmeal  and  other  meal \ 

Barley  and  beans \ 

Bice,  sago,  etc 8-^ 

Coffee,  cocoa  and  tea 2^^ 

Sugar  and  syrups T-flr 

Salt,  pepper  and  other  condiments i 

Fresh  fruits 1 

Frnitfl  preserved  and  dried \ 


THE   HARVEST  OF   DEATH.  101 

Fresh  meftt  and  fish IT-j^ 

Meat  and  fish  cured 1-^^ 

Butter  and  cheese S^^j 

Other  provisions 3i^ 

Vegetables 24 

Milk 14 

Total $1.07-i3ff 

"  The  cost  of  food,  as  above  given,  does  not  include  the  expense 
of  preparing  it,  or  incidental  expenditure  for  superintendence,  etc. 
But  the  average  disbursement  is  astonishingly  small.  So  far  as  sub- 
sistence goes,  to  raise  a  boy  is  not  much  more  costly  than  to  a  raise 
a  pig.  If  a  healthy  boy  can  be  properly  fed  for  $56  a  year,  there  is 
less  discouragement  in  the  task  of  increasing  the  male  population  of 
the  country  than  pessimist  observers  are  wont  to  insist  upon." 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  allowance  for  fresh  meat 
is  very  small — Icvss  than  a  pound  of  beefsteak  a  week  at 
New  York  prices.  The  allowance  for  milk  is  less  than 
two  quarts  a  week  at  the  same  rates.  Even  at  country 
prices,  these  items  would  be  very  small  for  many  fami- 
lies. Families,  of  course,  must  buy  at  retail  prices. 
Also  the  expense  of  preparing,  etc.,  will  raise  the  price 
6o:newhat.  At  this  rate,  $75  a  year  would  be  a  very 
moderate  allowance  for  the  food  of  a  boy  vot  '*  in  an 
industrial  school."  Clothing,  bedding,  and  breakage 
have  all  to  be  added. 

On  the  one  side,  however,  we  must  remember  the 
host  of  little  fellows  who  are  not  well  fed,  whose  food 
falls  short  of  even  that  moderate  allowance,  and  whose 
clothing  tells  a  sad  story  of  cheapness.  On  the  other, 
•we  must  consider  the  host  who  are  fed  at  fully  double 
the  rates  given  in  Dr.  McKinnon's  table,  and  clothed 
proportionately  well.  Then  for  these  latter  there  are 
the  school-books,  the  skates  and  the  base-balls,  the  jack- 
knives  and  the  bracket-saws,  the  gift  books  and  the  ju- 
venile papers— all   which   help   to  make  the   boy  worth 


102  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

growing  up— intellectual,  ingenious,  good,  and  home 
loving.  We  may  average  the  whole  at  $100  a  year— 
surely  a  very  moderate  estimate — making  $1,000  for 
those  ten  years,  and  the  boy  worth  $1,250  at  fifteen. 
Beyond  that,  the  limits  are  wide,  from  the  young  man 
supporting  himself,  to  the  student  at  an  expensive  col- 
lege spending  thousands  a  year.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  it  costs  the  man's  expenses  to  raise 
him,  even  if  in  these  latter  years  he  earns  all  he  costs 
and  more.  His  parents  and  society  may  receive  then 
more  than  the  cost,  but  all  that  value  has  gone  into  him, 
and  must  be  counted  in  his  worth  at  maturity.  We  can- 
not average  it  at  less  than  $200  a  year  from  fifteen  to 
twenty-one.  Few  persons  would  care  to  take  a  boy  of  fif- 
teen, to  do  for  him  as  they  ought  till  he  should  be  twenty- 
one,  for  so  little  as  $200  a  year.  That  makes,  then, 
$1,200  for  those  six  years,  or  $2,450  as  the  cost  of  a  man 
at  twenty- one.  Of  course,  many  are  reared  at  far  less 
expense.  It  is  generally,  however,  with  the  loss  of 
many  real  advantages.  On  the  other  hand,  many  have 
expended  upon  them  vastly  more  in  families  that  are 
/counted  among  the  wealthy.  It  would  seem  very 
moderate  and  reasonable  to  put  the  average  cost  of  an 
American  young  man  of  twenty-one  at  $2,000. 

But  the  cost  of  a  thing  does  not  always  indicate  its 
value.  It  might  cost  a  vast  sum  to  throw  new  soldiers 
into  a  starving  garrison,  and  they  would  be  worse  than 
worthless  when  they  arrived.  However  this  argument 
might  apply  in  China,  it  has  no  place  in  America,  with 
its  ample  field  for  all  worthy  manhood.  We  may  get 
some  idea  of  the  value  of  a  man  from  the  selling  price 
at  the  South  thirty  years  ago.  A  good,  steady,  indus- 
trious, able-bodied  man  would  then  sell  for  $1,500.      Re 


THE   HARVEST  OF   DEATH.  103 

would  be  a  man  who  had  no  school  training,  and  none  of 
the  deftness  and  power  which  come  from  inherited  edu- 
cation. On  the  basis  of  his  vahie  as  an  investment — his 
wealth-producing  power — our  American  young  man 
must  be  valued  much  higher  tlian  on  the  basis  of  his 
cost.  If  he  lives  and  has  his  health,  he  can  earn  from 
$300  a  year  up  to  sums  which  seem  fabulous,  for  the 
next  forty  years.  Let  us  take  the  case  only  of  wage- 
workers  at  from  ^300  to  $1,200  a  year.  Three  hundred 
dollars  a  year  is  the  interest  on  $5,000  at  six  per  cent, 
and  tlie  man  who  can  steadily  earn  $1  a  day  for  300 
working  days  each  year  is  worth  §5,000.  The  man  who 
can  earn  $600  a  year  is  worth  $10,000,  and  the  man  who 
can  earn  $1,200  a  year  is  worth  $20,000. 

So  long  as  there  is  a  field  for  wealth-producing  power, 
the  destruction  of  a  man  is  the  destruction  of  wealth. 
The  60,000  men  annually  destroyed  by  the  liquor  traffic  are 
worth  at  cost,  at  $2,000  each,  $120,000,000.  Supposing 
them  sober,  industrious,  and  intelligent,  as  but  for  the 
drink  traffic  they  might  have  been,  and  they  would  be 
equal  in  productive  power  to  an  investment  of  $300,000,- 
000  at  the  very  least.  Considering  the  intelligence  and 
achieving  power  of  educated  Americans  and  considering 
how  many  men  of  the  finest  advantages  and  most  splen- 
did abilities  from  the  professions  and  mercantile  life  go 
to  swell  the  dreadful  death-roll  of  drunkenness,  it  does 
not  seem  too  much  to  estimate  their  average  possible 
earnings  at  $600  a  year,  and  the  total  wage-earning 
power  of  the  men  annually  destroyed  at  $36,000,000, 
making  their  \'alue  as  capital  $600,000,000.  If  every 
saloon  in  the  United  States  paid  a  $1,000  license,  that 
would  yield  $150,000,000.  Adding  the  entire  Internal 
Revenue  Tax  paid  to  the  United  States  Government,  we 


104  ECOXOMICS   OP   PROHIBITION. 

should  have  $24:8,000,000.  This  is  far  in  excess  of  any- 
thing collected  in  our  day  or  likely  to  be  for  a  generation 
to  come.  But  even  at  that  generous  allowance,  the  sa- 
loon would  not  pay  its  own  funeral  expenses. 

Alvah  boasted  that  he  had  executed  18,000  men  in  the 
Netherlands  in  six  years,  or  3,000  a  year.  The  liquor 
traffic,  with  its  60,000  a  year,  outdoes  Alvah  twenty  to 
one,  and  we  have  no  one  to  do  what  even  the  cold- 
blooded Philip  11.  ultimately  did — recall  the  butcher  and 
stop  the  slaughter.  We  talk  of  the  cruelty  of  the  In- 
quisition, and  rejoice  that  the  world  is  at  length  free  from 
its  baleful  shadow.  But  Llorente,  the  historian  of  the 
Inquisition,  estimates  the  victims  burned  alive  at  its 
altars  in  the  three  hundred  years  from  Torquemada  to 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  at  only  31,912. 
Thirty  thousand  in  three  hundred  years,  and  we  call  that 
cruel  !  But  it  was  only  300  men  a  year,  while  our 
Whiskey  Inquisition  burns  alive  nearly  twice  as  many 
in  one  year  as  the  Inquisition  did  in  three  hundred 
years,  and  we  consider  it  a  valuable  source  of  revenue, 
*'  the  easiest  of  all  revenues  to  collect.''  We  talk  of 
^'  regulation  and  taxation,"  and  we  wonder  the  old  popes 
supposed  they  could  "regulate"  the  Inquisition.  We 
do  not  know  that  they  ever  thought  of  taxing  it.  How 
appalling  are  the  atrocities  of  former  generations  ! 

"Woe  onto  you,  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites,  for  ye  build 
the  tombs  of  the  prophets  and  gnrnish  the  sepulchres  of  the  right- 
eous, and  say,  If  we  had  been  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  we  would 
not  have  been  partakers  with  them  in  the  blood  of  the  prophets." 

In  view  of  such  facts  the  Christian  Index  asks  : 
HA\^  YOU  A  BOY    TO  SPARE? 

The  saloon  must  have  boys,  or  it  must  shut  up  shop.  Can't  yon 
furnish  it  one  ?    It  is  a  great  factor}-,  and  unless  it  can  get  2,000,000 


THE    HARVEST    UF    DEATH.  1,06 

boys  from  each  generation  for  raw  material,  some  of  these  factories 
must  close  out  and  its  operatives  must  be  thrown  on  u  cold  world, 
and  the  public  revenue  will  dwindle.  "  Wanted — 2,000,000  boys," 
is  the  notice.  One  family  out  of  every  five  must  contribute  a  boy  to 
keep  up  the  supply.  Will  you  help  ?  Which  of  your  boys  will  it  be  ? 
The  minotaur  of  Crete  had  to  have  a  trireme  full  of  fair  maidens 
each  year  ;  but  the  minotaur  of  America  demands  a  city  full  of  boys 
each  year.  Are  you  a  father  ?  Have  you  given  your  share  to  keep 
np  the  supply  for  this  great  public  institution  that  is  helping  to  pay 
your  taxes  and  kindly  electing  public  officials  for  you  ?  Have  you 
contributed  a  boy?  If  not,  some  other  family  has  had  to  give  more 
than  its  share.  Are  you  selfish,  voting  to  keep  the  saloon  open  to 
grind  up  boys,  and  then  doing  nothing  to  keep  up  the  supply  ? 

In  viesv  of  such  facts,  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  wrote,  ac- 
cepting a  death  rate  much  higher  than  we  have  given  : 

"  The  property  of  the  liquor  interest,  covering  every  department 
of  it,  depends  entirely  on  the  maintenance  of  this  army.  It  cannot 
live  without  it.  It  never  did  live  without  it.  So  long  as  the  liquor 
interest  maintains  its  present  prosperous  condition,  it  will  cost 
America' s  sacrifice  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  every  year.  The 
effect  is  inseparable  from  the  cause.  The  cost  to  the  country  of  the 
liquor  traflfic  is  a  sum  so  stupendous  that  any  figures  we  should  dare 
to  give  would  convict  us  of  trifling.  The  amount  of  life  absolutely 
destroyed,  the  amount  of  industry  sacrificed,  the  amount  of  bread 
transformed  into  poison,  the  shame,  the  unavailing  sorrow,  the  crime, 
the  poverty,  the  pauperism,  the  brutality,  the  wild  waste  of  vital  and 
financial  resources,  make  an  aggregate  so  vast— so  incalculably  vast, 
that  the  only  wonder  is  that  the  American  people  do  not  rise  as 
one  man  and  declare  that  this  great  curse  shall  exist  no  longer. 
The  truth  U,  that  there  is  no  question  before  the  American  peo- 
ple to-day  that  begins  to  match  in  importance  the  tempernnce  ques- 
tion. The  question  of  American  slavery  was  never  anything  but  a 
baby  by  the  side  of  this  ;  and  we  prophesy  that  within  ten  years,  if 
not  within  five,  the  whole  country  will  be  awake  to  it." 


CHAPTEK  YIIL 


A    STEP    TOWABD     PROHIBITION. 


"  And  why  not,  (as  we  be  slanderously  reported,  and  as  some  affirm 
that  we  say,)  Let  us  do  evil,  that  good  may  come?  whose  damnation 
is  just."— 2?om.  3  :  8. 

' '  As  matters  now  stand,  it  is  absolute!}'  necessary  for  the  entire  trade 
to  organize  and  get  to  work.  Wake  up,  especially  those  who  are  al- 
ways known  as  very  generously  permitting  others  to  do  the  work. 
This  time  it  is  business ;  so,  each  and  every  one  lay  aside  any  petty 
trade  jealousies  you  may  have  :  the  enemy  is  strong,  and  to  vanquish 
him  requires  good  work,  strong  work,  and  work  together,  with  your  baille- 
cry,  'High  License  against  Prohibition.*  Some  dealers  may  not  realize 
this  condition  of  affairs  in  the  trade,  but  all  will  very  soon  find  out  that, 
though  the  trade  cannot  now  defeat  Prohibition,  High  License  can,  as  it 
will  receive  the  support  of  a  large  majority  of  the  press  throughout 
the  State,  and  the  almost  unanimous  support  of  all  fair-minded,  sen- 
sible, and  practical  men." — BonforVs  Wine  and  Spirit  Circular^  January 
25th,  1889. 

There  are  many  temperance  men  who  say,  '*  I  do  not 
believe  in  license  as  a  finality,  or  a  desirable  thing  in  it- 
self. But  I  believe  if  we  can  keep  raising  the  license 
higher  and  higher,  making  the  saloons  fewer  and  fewer, 
we  can  at  length  sweep  away  altogether  the  few  that  re- 
main. In  short,  I  favor  High  License  as  a  step  toward 
Prohibition." 

To  this  plan  there  are  several  serious  objections  : 
1.  If  license  is  wrong,  it  will  prove  unwise.     Never 
in  all  history  did  good  men  make  anything  by  ''  doing 
evil  that  good  might  come."     The  universe  is  not  con- 
structed  on   that  principle.     We  do  not  ask  any  one  to 


A    STEP   TOWAKU    PUOHIBITION".  107 

take  this  on  feight.  We  cannot-  stop  to  prove  it.  It 
will  bear  thinking  over,  and  will  prove  itself. 
^/2.  This  plan  does  not  correctly  gauge  the  facts.  It  is 
based  on  the  false  assumption  that  the  saloons  which  re- 
inahi  will  each  he  of  the  same  grade  and  power  as  the 
saloons  you  started  with.  Facts  show — as  stated  in  pre- 
vious chapters — that  the  saloons  w4iich  remain  when  High 
License  has  done  its  utmost  will  have  at  least  as  much 
capital,  consumption  of  liquor,  and  political  inlluence  as 
the  whole  number  had  in  the  beginning,  only  concen- 
trated in  fewer  hands.  Which  will  be  the  easiest  to 
conquer  ?  Would  it  be  more  difficult  to  stamp  out  in 
Louisiana,  for  instance,  500  little,  petty  lotteries,  or  the 
great  Louisiana  State  Lottery,  with  its  capital  of  millions, 
its  prizes  of  fortunes,  farms,  and  gold  watches,  and  with 
generals  and  eminent  politicians  on  its  official  board  ? 
■y^  3.  This  plan  proceeds  upon  a  false  estimate  of  human 
nature.  Are  people  more  ready  to  break  up  a  damaging 
business  run  by  irresponsible  individuals,  or  to  sacrifice 
their  own  money,  which  they  have  become  accustomed 
to  receiving  and  spending  ?  Take  a  single  town  where 
there  is  one  saloon  run  by  one  man  who  pays  no  license 
and  no  tax.  The  manufacturer  loses  two  days  on  an 
average  in  the  week  from  many  of  his  workmen,*  be- 
cause they  drink  at  that  saloon.  He  says,  *^  It's  a 
heavy  tax  to  me  and  makes  no  return  to  anybody.'* 
The  grocer  looks  over  his  list  of  **  bad  debts''  which  he 
cannot  collect,  because  his  customers  have  spent  all  their 
money  in  the  saloon.     He  says,  "  It's  a  heavy  loss  to 

*  The  Oliver  Ames  Company,  in  Massachusettn,  after  Prohibition 
had  been  repealed  and  High  License  substituted,  reported  eight  per 
cent,  less  work  done  by  400  men  than  by  315  in  the  same  months  of 
the  previous  year. 


1U8  KCONOMICS    OF    PliOHIBITIOX. 

me  and  no  good  to  anybody."  All  sober  men  who  see 
their  sons  and  their  neighbors  tempted  and  endangered 
say,  ^'  What  is  this  business  doing  for  the  community, 
that  we  should  let  one  man  work  all  this  havoc  for  his 
own  private  profit  ?" 
/  The  policeman  who  every  little  while  has  to  stop  a 
fight  or  arrest  a  drunken  desperado,  at  the  risk  of  his 
own  life  and  limb,  says,  "  If  they'd  let  me  lock  up  that 
old  rnmseller  1  could  stop  all  this  nonsense.''  It  will 
not  be  hard  to  bring  all  the  respectable  men  of  this  com- 
munity to  say,  ^'  Let's  shut  that  place  up." 

But  now  put  on  the  saloon  a  §1,000  license.  Let  the 
people  get  used  to  spending  it,  and  the  whole  case  is 
changed. 

If  the  manufacturer  complains,  they  say,  **  If  we 
shut  that  man's  place  up,  are  you  willing  to  pay  his 
$1,000  a  year  to  the  tax  fund  ?"  '*  Well,  no."  To  the 
grocer,  ''Are  you?"  "Hardly."  If  the  policeman 
grumbles,  the  answer  is,  "  Where  are  you  going  to  get 
your  pay  if  you  stop  that  man's  license  ?  Why,  your 
whole  salary  is  paid  out  of  his  money. ^^  Saintly  women 
pray  and  plead,  temperance  orators  thunder,  and  the 
silent  answer  of  the  majority  is,  "If  we  let  these  peo- 
ple have  their  way,  they'll  take  $1,000  out  of  revenues 
of  this  town.  Then  we  should  all  have  our  taxes  in- 
creased to  make  it  up.  Better  let  well  enough  alone." 
If  the  money  is  used — as  in  some  States — for  the  school 
fund,  the  superintendent  of  schools  is  told,  "If  we  close 
that  saloon  we  shall  have  to  cut  down  your  salary,"  and 
unless  he  is  a  rare  man  he  is  silenced.  Even  the  minis- 
ter is  unconsciously  influenced  by  the  same  argument. 
He  docs  not  reason  so,  but  he  talks  with  solid  business 
men  who  do,  and  has  a  feelinixthat  they  know  more  than 


A  sTKF   row  Ai{i>  ria»mi{i  1 1()\'.  hivi 

lie  does  about  **  practical  matters."  They  say  to  liim, 
"  We  would  be  as  glad  as  you  to  close  that  saloon,  but 
public  sentiment  is  not  ready  for  it.  It  would  be  a  use- 
less agitation  and  very  likely  divide  your  church  in  the 
attempt  to  do  an  impossibility.  We  are  doing  the  best 
we  can  in  burdening  the  saloon  and  making  it  pay  for 
some  part  of  the  damage  it  does."  But  it  is  that  very 
$1,000  license  which  has  made  that  public  sentiment. 

If  we  could  have  the  issue  between  a  liquor  tradic 
paying  not  one  cent  of  public  revenue  on  the  one  side, 
and  on  the  other  side  prohibition  of  the  whole  business 
that  brings  such  woe  and  curse,  Prohibition  would  come 
with  a  rush. 

**  Ah,  yes  !"  is  the  taunting  answer,  ^'  you  want  free 
rum."  "Well,  we  once  saw  a  mad  Texas  steer  holding 
possession  of  a  market-place.  Men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren were  crowded  into  stores,  the  furious  animal  charg- 
ing up  to  the  very  doors.  Horses  and  carriages  were 
parked  in  lots,  whose  gates  had  been  hastily  opened  be- 
fore them  and  shut  behind  them.  A  man  came  up  very 
bravely  with  a  flint-lock  musket  within  easy  range  of  the 
animal  and  fired.  There  was  a  little  puff  of  smoke. 
The  gun  had  "flashed  in  the  pan."  The  gun  looked 
big  enough  in  all  conscience,  but  the  steer  looked  bigger 
than  before  and  far  more  wicked.  Another  man  came 
up  with  a  Sharp's  rifle,  and  called  to  the  other,  "  Get 
r.it  of  the  way  with  your  pop-gun."  What  did  he  want 
that  man  out  of  the  way  for  ?  Ah,  he  wanted  the  steer 
free,  didn't  he  ?  Yes,  free  just  long  enough  to  be  killed. 
He  couldn't  shoot  him  while  the  flint-lock  man  stood  be- 
tween. The  flint-lock  man  was  very  accommodating, 
and  got  over  a  fence.  The  Sharp's  rifle  was  levelled 
one   instant  ;  there   was  a  sudden    "  crack'**  ;    the  great 


110  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

head  and  horns  went  crashing  to  the  ground,  and  men, 
women,  and  children  were  safe.  Yes,  we  want  rum 
free  just  long  enough  to  kill  it.  Good  high  license 
friends,  get  out  of  the  waj  with  your  pop-guns  !  AVe 
can't  shoot  through  you.  Leave  us  face  to  face  with  our 
unlicensed  liquor  traffic,  and  Prohibition  will  bring  it 
down, 
\j  4.  Religious  and  political  papers,  and  the  liquor  organs 
themselves,  agree  that  the  American  people  will  not  en- 
dure free  rum,  and  if  the  liquor  men  will  not  accept  High 
License,  they  will  infallibly  be  given  over  to  Prohibition. 
The  Journal  and  Messenger^  of  Cincinnati,  says : 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  brewers  and  distillers  of  the  country  are 
not  in  favor  of  High  License.  They  simply  say,  better  for  us  to  pay 
a  High  License  than  to  submit  to  Prohibition.  They  are  choosing 
the  least  of  two  evils,  feeling  sure  they  must  submit  to  one  or  the 
other." 

The  Freie  Presse,  a  German  liquor  organ  of  Cliicago, 
in  its  issue  of  April  29th,  18S9,  says  : 

' '  The  Chicago  Tribune  has  advocated,  with  the  determination  and 
zeal  which  mark  it,  the  cause  of  Local  Option  and  High  License 
since  Iowa  and  Kansas  went  Prohibition.  To  some  German  Kepub- 
licana  who  took  exception  to  this,  Mr.  Medill  explained  that  the  only 
way  in  which  the  culopfion  of  Prohibition  laws  in  all  the  Northwestern 
Stales,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Wisconsin,  cou^d  be  hijidered  was 
to  leave  it  to  localities  to  decide  whether  there  would  be  *  license  *  or 
*  no  license.*  Local  Option  and  High  License  were  the  only  barriers 
against  the  Prohibition  craze,  and  the  good  results  of  High  License 
would  soon  lessen  the  number  of  those  States  which  had  come  out 
against  the  granting  of  licenses.  How  accurately  Mr.  Medill  calcu- 
lated the  efifcct  of  High  License  on  Anglo-Americans  the  vote  by 
which  the  Prohibition  amendment  was  defeated  in  Massachusetts 
shows.  It  was  the  great  argument  of  the  friends  of  personal  liberty 
there  that  Prohibition  would  stop  the  sale  of  liquor,  while  the  license 
taxes  would  bring  in  a  heavy  income  to  the  community  that  impose 
them.  That  took  with  the  voters,  and  Prohibition  was  beaten  by  an 
immense  vote.     We  believe  now  that  it  is  owing  to  the  far-sighted- 


A    STEP   TOWARD    PKOHIBITION-.  HI 

nees  of  Mr.  Medill  nnd  the  ener^^etio  position  of  the  Tribune  that 
Illinois  has  escaped  paper  Prohibition,  and  the  city  treasury  of  Chica- 
go has  received  about  |;2.0()0,000  a  year  from  the  saloons.  This  is 
soQietimes  severe  on  the  saloon-keepers,  but  it  is  insurance  against 
Prohibition." 

In  tlie  recent  Amendment  contest  in  Pennsylvania 
the  liquor-dealers  of  Philadelphia  wore  High  License 
badges  on  election-day,  marshalled  their  voters  and  won 
the  election  behind  that  symbol.  In  Massachusetts,  the 
Boston  papers  gave  iis  one  reason  for  the  defeat  of  the 
Amendment  a  *' general  desire  to  give  the  new  High 
License  Law  a  fair  trial/'  The  Herald,  two  days  be- 
fore the  election,  came  out  with  an  elaborate  article  for 
High  License  against  Prohibition,  with  these  striking 

headlines  : 

HIGH  LICENSE. 

It  wil,l  orvE  $900,000  a  year  to  Boston.  But  the  Amendment 
wiuL  lose  it  all. 

Of  the  defeated  Amendment  in  Michigan,  Miss  Fran- 
ces E.  "Willard,  who  worked  for  the  Amendment  through 
the  stormy  campaign,  said  :  *^  Its  epitaph  might  be, 
Died  of  High  License."  Wherever  there  is  danger  of 
Prohibition,  the  politicians  who  favor  the  liquor  interest 
hasten  to  pass  or  promise  High  License  Laws,  as  they 
did  in  the  States  above  referred  to. 

On  this  point  we  are  able  to  give  a  remarkable  series 
of  statements  by  clergymen  of  Nebraska,  wiiich  has  had  a 
license  of  $1,000  since  1881.  These  statements  were  giv- 
en in  answer  to  questions  sent  out  by  Rev.  G.M. Prentice.* 

In  the  condensation  of  the  replies  in  the  following 
tables,  we  give  only  the  questions  and  answers  (3  and 
4  of  the  series)  bearing  on  this  single  point. 

*  A  47-page  pamphlet  containing  the  full  replies  from  which  these 
tables  have  been  made  may  be  had  by  addressing  Rev.  Benjamin 
J.  Eipley,  Windsor,  N.  Y.     The  price  is  ten  cents. 


112 


ECOXOMRS    OF    PKOHIBITIOX. 


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A    STEP   TOWARD    PROHIBITION. 


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A    STEP   TOWARD    PROHIBITION. 


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ECOKOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 


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117 


118  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBTTIOX. 

In  his  famous  letter  of  N"ovember  22d,  1883,  in  favor 
of  distributing  the  United  States  Internal  Revenue  Tax 
among  the  several  States  on  the  basis  of  their  population, 
Secretary  of  State  James  G.  Blaine  said  : 

**  On  the  basis  of  the  Census  of  1880,  it  would  pay  about  $1.75  per 
capita  to  all  the  people.  The  tendency  would  he  to  increase  rather  than 
diminish  as  time  wore  on. 

"  It  makes  the  tax  on  spirituous  and  malt  liquors  a  permanent  reve- 
nttfi  to  all  the  States,  enabling  them  thereby  definitely  to  readjust  and 
reduce  their  own  taxation.'* 

J  When  taxes  have  been  '*  definitely  readjusted  and  re- 
duced "  on  the  basis  of  a  certain  source  of  revenue,  do 
people  become  more  or  less  ready  to  destroy  that  source 
of  revenue  ? 

The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  experience  of  Illinois 
after  the  enactment  of  the  Harper  Law,  fixing  the  liquor 
h'cense  at  $500.  In  the  Legislature  the  next  year  a  pro- 
posal was  made  to  reduce  the  fee  to  $250.  The  answer 
was  :  '*  Gentlemen,  if  yon  do  that,  you  will  derange  the 
finances  of  a  thousand  cities  and  towns."  And  it  was 
not  done. 

To  all  this  evidence  against  the  claim  of  High  License 
to  be  a  step  toward  Prohibition,  we  add  the  utter  absence 
of  any  proof  that  it  has  ever  had  that  elfect.  When  and 
where  has  it  ever  stepped  in  that  direction  ? 

The  license  fee  in  Maine,  previous  to  the  adoption  of 
Prohibition,  was  $1,  for  the  use  of  the  licensing  board.* 
Iowa  had  no  State  license,  but  towns  and  cities  gave  li- 
censes as  they  pleased,  often  at  merely  nominal  fees — $50 
to  $100.  In  Michigan  the  license  fee  fixed  by  tlie 
Revised  Statutes  of  1846,  ch.  41,  was  **  not  less  than 
$5,  nor  more  than  $20. '*     It  was  from  this  that  Michigan 

*  Revised  Rtatnteg,  1847,  ch.  36,  Bee.  4. 


A    STEP   TOWAKD    PROHIBITION.  119 

passed  to  Proliibitioii  in  1850  to  1855.  In  Kansas,  ac- 
cording to  the  old  "  Dram  Shop  Act,"  the  hcense  was 
from  $100  to  $500  at  the  discretion  of  the  licensing 
board.  It  is  said  rarely  to  have  exceeded  $200  to  $300, 
and  could  not  be  called  a  High  License.  The  step  from 
High  License  to  Prohibition  is  '^  the  nriissing  link"  which 
no  man  can  supply.  The  plea  that  High  License  is  a 
step  toward  Prohibition  is  an  absolntely  baseless  assump- 
tion without  one  single  fact  in  its  favor.  It  is  an  ^  priori 
theory  never  realized  in  the  actual  world  in  one  instance 
that  any  man  can  put  his  finger  on.  If  we  want  the 
revenue  from  High  License,  let  us  say  so.  If  not,  let  us 
not  be  deluded  with  the  argument  that  it  is  a  step  toward 
Prohibition  when  exactly  the  opposite  has  been  found  to 
be  the  fact  wherever  it  has  been  tried. 

President  Atherton  of  the  National  Liquor  Dealers' 
Protective  Association  takes  quite  a  different  view  of 
the  matter.  He  is  the  official  head  of  the  foremost  or- 
ganization of  distillers,  wholesale  liquor-dealers  and  other 
liquor  men  (as  distinguished  from  the  brewers)  in  the 
country.  He  has  been  President  of  the  National  Pro- 
tective Association  ever  since  it  was  started  in  1886. 

He  has  written  the  following  letter,  which  may  be 
found  in  the  ''  Prohibition  Leaflet, "  entitled  '*  The  Fight 
for  Life  or  Death  in  Nebraska"  (italics  and  capitals  be- 
ing supplied  by  the  editor)  : 

Brands  of  Fine 
Kentucky  Whiskies 
•  Atherton,"  The  J.  M,  Atherton  Company, 

"  May  field,"  Louisville,  Ky.,  March  2,  1889. 

"Clifton," 
••  Windsor." 

'^  E.  A.  Fox,  Esq.,  Eaton  Bapids,  Mich. 

""  Dear  Sir  :  Your  letter  has  been  on  mv  desk  for 


120  ECONOMICS    01<    PKOHIBITIOX. 

some  time  without  reply,  because  of  my  absence  most  of 
the  time  from  the  city.  The  two  most  effective  wea^07is 
with  which  to  fight  Prohibition  are  High  License  and 
Local  Option.  The  difficulty  is  that  the  remedy  is  al- 
most as  bad  as  the  disease.  High  License  is  a  vague, 
indefinite  term,  and  is  variously  construed  in  different 
localities.  I  think  $500  entirely  too  high,  and  a  very 
unjust  tax  upon  the  liquor  trade.  Two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  is  as  much  tax  as  the  ordinary  retail  liquor-dealer 
can  afford  to  pay  and  sell  anything  like  old  whiskey  or 
pure  liquors,  however  cheaply  he  may  buy  them.  The 
true  policy  for  the  trade  to  pursue  is  to  advocate  as  high 
a  license  as  they  can  in  justice  to  themselves  afford  to 
pay,  hecause  the  money  thus  raised  tends  to  relieve  all 
owners  of  j^^operty  from  taxation  and  keeps  the  treas- 
uries of  the  towns  and  cities  pi^etty  well  filled.  THIS 
CATCHES  THE  ORDINAKY  TAX-PAYER,  who 
cares  less  for  the  sentimental  opposition  to  our  business 
than  he  does  for  taxes  on  his  own  property.  The  point 
is  to  prevent  the  gross  imposition  in  the  way  of  excessive 
and  exorbitant  taxation,  under  the  name  of  High  License. 
Local  Option  is  local  Prohibition,  but  the  experience  is 
that  tJiere  is  always  enough  license  counties  mixed  in 
with  the  No- License  counties  to  practically  supply  the 
latter  with  all  the  liquor  they  need. 

**  I  think  Local  Option  is  less  objectionable  in  its  practi- 
cal operations  than  the  extreme  High  License.  Soaner 
or  later  the  trade  may  be  able  to  defeat  the  Local  Option 
feature,  BUT  UNTIL  PROHIBITION  IS  DE- 
STROYED, OR  ITS  POLITICAL  EFFORTS 
BROKEN,  I  REPEAT  THAT  OUR  BEST  WEAP- 
ONS  TO  FIGHT  IT  WITH  ARE  HIGH  LICENSE 
AND  LOrWL  OPTION  V.X  TOWNSTHPS.      ff  Lo- 


A    STEP   TUWAKi)    J'UUII  IBITIO.N  .  1 '^  I 

cal  Option  can  he  defeated  without  encouraging  Prohibi- 
tion^ it  should  be  done.  These  are  my  views  in  a  general 
way.  Of  course  each  locality  and  State  has  its  peculiar- 
ities, and  must  modify  its  views  to  such  existing  condi- 
tion's, but  I  think  the  suggestions  I  have  herein  given 
you  are  sound. 

^'  You  will  please  pardon  me  for  the  neglect  or  dis- 
courtesy in  delaying  this  reply,  but  my  absence  from 
the  city  most  of  the  time  is  the  reason.  Would  be  glad 
to  give  you  any  information  or  give  any  suggestions  at 
any  time.     With  kind  regards, 

"  Yours  truly, 

*'J.  M.  Atherton." 

HOW    ILEE    &    CO.    VIEW    IT. 

There  is  a  most  desperate  contest  in  Nebraska  during 
the  present  year  on  the  question  of  Prohibition.  It  is  a 
straiglit  issue  between  Prohibition  and  High  License, 
and  the  liquor  men  are  preparing  to  fight  with  all  their 
resources  for  High  License.  A  very  interesting  state- 
ment from  the  liquor  standpoint,  showing  how  the  rum 
people  regard  High  License,  was  made  by  Her  &.  Co. , 
of  Omaha,  the  leading  distillers  of  Nebraska,  in  Bon- 
fort'' s  Wine  and  Spirit  Circular  for  October  25tli,  1889. 
It  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  issue  to  be  voted  on  is  an  alternative,  either  Prohibition  or 
High  License.  It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  foretell  the  outcome 
of  this  election,  and,  of  course,  toe  art  all  in  hopes  to  win  for  High  Li- 
censBy  and  thought  that  the  outcome  of  the  elections  in  the  East 
•would  assist  us  materially  ;  but  we  are  afraid  that  the  Prohibition 
victory  in  the  Dakotas  has  about  offset  that.  That  Prohibition  should 
be  defeated  next  year  in  Nebraska  is  not  only  of  great  importance  for 
the  welfare  of  the  State,  but  also  of  the  country  at  large.  If  we  can 
carry  High  License,  it  will  be  the  commencement  of  an  era  of  great 
prosperity  for  this  State.     With  Prohibition  on  the  east,  south,  and 


122  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

north  of  ns,  a  liberal  license  policy  will  draw  vast  amounts  of  capital 
to  this  State.  There  are  already  a  number  of  Prohibition  orators, 
male  and  female,  stumping  the  State,  while  the  anti-Prohibition 
Party  seems  to  be  dormant.  Early  and  most  energetic  action  can- 
not be  urged  too  much.  The  winter  season  is  the  best  time  to  cir- 
culate anti-Prohibition  literature,  direct  as  well  as,  through  papers, 
among  the  voters.  In  winter  the  farmers  have  time  to  read,  while 
next  summer,  or  shortly  before  the  election,  they  will  be  too  busy. 
There  is  no  doubt  but  that  good,  sound  arguments,  demonstrating 
the  fallacies  of  Prohibition,  if  properly  circulated,  will  give  us  a 
majority  against  Prohibition.  We  are  somewhat  afraid  that  the 
Eastern  States,  now  being  safe,  will  render  us  no  assistance  " 

With  such  evidence,  as  the  lawyers  say,  '^  We  rest." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

LOCAL    OPTION. 

"  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself." 
—Rom.  14  :  7. 

"  The  State  is  the  normal  unit  of  sovereignty,  and  it  is  opposed  to 
sound  theories  of  government  to  transfer  to  local  fractions  the  de- 
cision of  a  question  of  such  general  and  far-reaching  importance. 
.  ,  .  Legislation  of  this  kind  breaks  the  educational  force  of  law. 
What  can  be  voted  up  or  down  by  the  people  of  a  village  or  a  county 
— what  is  right  in  one  district  and  wrong  in  another— loses  all  moral 
significance."— t/udge  Robert  C.  PUman. 

"  Besides,  the  reformation  of  a  town,  or  even  of  a  State,  is  but  the 
emptying  of  its  waters  from  the  bed  of  a  river,  to  be  instantly  re- 
placed by  the  waters  from  above  ;  or  like  the  creation  of  a  vacuum 
in  the  atmosphere,  which  is  instantly  filled  by  the  pressure  of  the 
circumjacent  air.  The  remedy,  whatever  it  may  be,  must  be  uni- 
versal -operating  permanently  at  all  times  and  in  all  places.  Short 
of  this,  everj'thing  Mhich  can  be  done  will  be  but  the  application  of 
temporary  expedients." — Dr.  Lyman  Beecher' s  "  Six  Sermons  on  Intem- 
perance," preached  in  the  yeor  1825. 

Of  all  the  remedies  for  intemperance  short  of  absolute 
Prohibition,  none  has  been  more  highly  praised  than 
this.  None  has  received  the  support  of  a  greater  num- 
ber of  good  men.     It  is  urged  in  its  behalf  : 

1.  Tliat  this  system  is  peculiarly  American,  allowing 
each  community  to  manage  its  own  affairs  in  its  own 
way. 

2.  That  it  allows  Prohibition  to  be  enacted  wherever  it 
can  l)e  enforced  ;  that  where  the  local  sentiment  in  favor 
of  drink  is  strong  enough  to  defeat  a  local  ordinance 


15J4  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOIJIISITION. 

against  it,  that  sentiment  would  be  strong  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  execution  of  a  State  or  I^ational  law  if  that  were 
enacted. 
J  3.  That  Local  Prohibition  can  be  obtained  where  State 
or  National  Prohibition  could  not  be  ;  or  at  any  rate, 
very  mnch  sooner  ;  that  a  Local  Option  Law  can  be 
passed  in  States  where  a  State  Prohibitory  Law  would 
be  defeated,  and  by  it  a  large  part  of  the  State,  including 
all  the  rural  districts,  can  be  put  under  immediate  Pro- 
hibition. 
J  4.  That  facts  sustain  its  claims  ;  that  in  several  States 
it  has  been  highly  successful,  notably  in  Georgia,  where 
by  Local  Option  many  whole  counties  and  numerous 
towns  and  villages  are  under  complete  Prohibition. 

This  is  certainly  an  attractive  shov/ing.  But  there  are 
objections  to  the  system  both  on  the  ground  of  Theory 
and  of  Fact. 

(A)  To  the  Theory  of  Local  Option  it  is  to  be  ob- 
jected : 

] .  That  it  is  wrong  to  give  any  community  the  right 
to  legalize  a  wrong  ^  and  that  the  business  which  makes 
madmen,  idiots,  murderers,  and  paupers,  and  blasts  the 
returns  of  honest  industry  and  the  happiness  of  home, 
and  does  a  host  of  citizens  to  death,  is  morally  and  po- 
litically wrong.  No  community  can  make  the  wrong 
right  by  a  majority  vote,  and  the  State  has  no  right  to 
allow  any  community  to  legalize  such  a  wrong  within  its 
borders.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that  Local  Option 
means  the  option  to  permit  as  well  as  the  option  to  pro- 
hibit. By  a  weak — and  somewhat  cowardly — fear  of  the 
word  Prohibition,  it  lias  become  common  to  speak  of  a 
Prohibitory  town  like  Alliance,  O.,  for  instance,  as  *' a 
Local  Option  town."     But  all  towns  in  Ohio  are  Local 


Option  towns.  Cincinnati  has  as  much  Local  Option  as 
Alliance.  An  option  is  a  choicf.^  and  there  never  was  a 
choice  with  hut  one  thing  to  choose  from,  except  poor 
ITobson's  '^  That  or  nothing."  Cincinnati  takes  the 
option  of  permitting  the  sale,  Alliance  the  option  of  pro- 
hibiting it.  That  is  all.  The  Municipal  Council  of 
Cincinnati  have  the  option  of  prohibiting  the  liquor 
traffic  all  through  Cincinnati  to-morrow  if  they  choose. 
Their  idea  of  Local  Option  is  to  have  it  continue,  and 
that  is  precisely  what  the  law  means  to  allow  them  to  do, 
if  they  please.  In  a  word,  Local  Option  authorizes  each 
locality  to  choose  whether  it  will  destroy  its  citizens  or 
not.     The  State  has  no  right  to  authorize  such  a  choice. 

^2.  That  it  is  un-American  and  un- republican.  The 
ATuerican  idea  of  liberty  is  distinctively  not  of  piece- 
meal, but  of  aggregate  liberty.  "  That  these  colonies 
are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent 
States."  The  towns  were  never  independent.  No 
town  on  American  soil  ever  had  authority  to  legalize 
anything  contrary  to  the  general  welfare — till  Local  Op- 
tion laws  came  in  at  this  late  day.  That  is  not  American 
but  Italian  independence.  In  Italy,  a  few  centuries  ago, 
any  town  might  go  to  war  with  any  other — Milan  with 

.  Venice,  Florence  with  Pisa.  It  was  so  in  ancient 
Greece,  where  Athens  waged  long  and  destructive  wars 
with  Sparta,  and  Thebes  with  both,  and  every  city  could 
make  its  own  treaties  with  all  others,  declare  war  and 
conclude  peace  at  its  pleasure.  It  was  a  system  of 
weakness  and  ultimate  ruin,  bringing  both  Greece  and 
Italy  under  the  spoiler's  yoke.  Our  fathers  never  pro- 
posed any  such  policy  of  disintegration.  That  system 
would  have  made  it  of  no  consequence  to  Virginia  that 
Great   Britain  closed  the  port  of  Boston  :  of  no  conse- 


l^G  ECONOMICS   OF    PUOHIBITIOX. 

quence  to  Massachusetts  that  Tarleton  ravaged  South 
Carolina  ;  and  of  no  consequence  to  either  that  the 
British  attacked  New  Orleans.  Even  before  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution  our  fathers  recognized  that  the 
country  was  one,  and  died  for  that  idea  on  many  a  hard- 
fought  field  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  The  very  first  ob- 
ject of  the  Constitution  was,  as  stated  in  its  preamble, 
*' to  form  a  more  perfect  union  j'^''  and  this  ideal,  ce- 
mented by  the  struggle  of  the  Civil  War,  has  been  grow- 
ing upon  the  people  ever  since.  The  very  fighting  point 
in  tiiat  struggle  was  the  assumed  right  of  any  State  to 
act  for  itself  without  reference  to  the  wish  or  the  welfare 
of  all  the  States.  That  claim  went  down  in  blood. 
Now,  what  we  refused  to  the  gallant  South  we  propose 
to  grant  to  each  little  municipality,  and  call  it  '^  Ameri- 
can." In  the  thunder  of  a  hundred  battle-fields  the 
American  people  have  proclaimed  that  this  idea  is  not 
American. 

The  principle  of  Local  Option  is  simply  the  Douglas 
doctrine  of  "  Popular  Sovereignty,"  or,  as  it  was  some- 
times called,  '^  Squatter  Sovereignty,"  applied  to  a  new 
issue. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  1854r,  said  : 

"  If  EansaH  wants  a  slave -State  constitution,  she  has  a  right  to  it  : 
if  she  wants  a  free-State  constitution,  she  has  a  right  to  it.  It  iH 
none  of  my  business  which  way  the  slave  clause  is  decided." 

Abraham  Lincoln  replied  : 

"  He  (Douglas)  contends  that  whatever  community  wants  slaves 
has  a  right  to  have  them.  So  they  have  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But  if  it 
is  a  wrong,  he  cannot  say  people  have  a  right  to  do  a  wrong. " 

We  Stand  with  Abraham  Lincoln.  We  declare  that 
system  not  American  which  makes  the  same  act  lawful 
in  one  town  and  criminal  in  another  fis'e  miles  awav,  so 


LOCAL   OPTION.  127 

that  a  travellino^  man  would  need  a  colored  map  of  the 
State  spotted  like  a  leopard  to  tell  him  in  which  towns 
liquor-selling  is  a  protected  riglit  and  in  which  it  is  a 
punishable  crime, 

{B)  The  Fact : 

1.  Local  Option  is  inadequate  protection.  The  rapid 
transit  of  our  age  is  against  it.  That  is  not  very  effec- 
tive Prohibition  which  a  railroad  train  will  carry  a  man 
out  of  in  half  an  hour. 

The  mother  in  a  Local  Option  town  does  not  know 
but  her  boy  will  be  made  a  drunkard  within  twenty  miles 
of  her  home,  the  whole  power  of  law  upholding  the 
tempter  in  the  process.  The  wife  does  not  know  but 
her  husband  will  come  home  drunk  from  the  next  town 
and  beat  her  to  death,  as  the  result  of  a  purcliase  which 
is  as  lawful  in  that  neighboring  town  as  the  purchase  of 
groceries.     Such  things  continually  happen. 

liev.  Wayland  Johnson,  of  Dalton,  Ga.,  assures  us 
there  is  a  "  large  and,  in  Georgia,  constantly  increasing 
number  of  intelligent  and  respectable  poople  who  are 
Prohibitionists  at  heart,  but  who  doubt  the  practicability 
of  the  present  Prohibition  measures.  The  last  are  cool- 
headed,  thoughtful  men  who  believe  in  Prohibition  ab- 
solute and  uncompromising,  but  are  thoroughly  sick  of 
the  Local  Option  farce  that  stretches  a  restriction  ropo 
around  one  county  while  a  deluge  of  bottles,  jugs,  and 
kegs  flows  in  from  the  next.  That  this  sort  of  traffic  is 
inconsiderable  and  working  very  little  injury,  is  the  com- 
mon notion  among  those  who  have  a  pleasant  faculty  of 
seeing  only  what  they  desire  to  see.  But  that  such  is 
not  the  fact  is  evident  to  any  one  who  is  not  hopelessly 
blind  to  the  clearest  daylight  occurrences  in  every  com- 
munity.    That  the  number  of  besotted  young  men  and 


12K  ECONOMICS   OF    PROF! IBITIOX. 

heart- wrung  mothers  is  increasnig  instead  of  diminishing 
in  this  Local  Option  State  is  the  surprised  exclamation 
of  all  good  people  who  do  not  weigh  evidences  in  the 
balance  of  their  hopes."  Such  a  law  cannot  be  perma- 
nently successful.  A  protective  law  should  be  as  wide 
as  the  danger  and  the  need. 

2.  Local  Option  surrenders  to  the  liquor  traffic  the 
centers  of  population  and  power.  This  is  our  answer  to 
argument  (2)  in  its  favor. 

It  allows  the  liquor  traffic  to  maintain  legalized  strong- 
holds in  the  midst  of  our  civilization.  All  the  towns  of 
a  county  may  be  under  Prohibition  except  the  county- 
seat.  But  the  men  of  the  county  must  go  there  for  almost 
every  transaction  involving  law,  and  often  for  other 
business.  While  the  liquor  traffic  is  legalized  there,  in- 
temperance will  invade  the  surrounding  towns.  The 
village  boy  rarely  spends  his  life  in  the  village  where  he 
was  born.  Still  more  rarely  does  the  farmer's  boy  re- 
main on  the  farm.  The  prizes  of  wealth  and  ambition 
are  in  the  cities  ;  and  Local  Option  gives  up  those  very 
places  to  the  enemy. 

The  young  man  who  goes  into  business  there  is  every 
day  throwing  off  provincial  ideas  as  narrow  and  petty 
and  *'  behind  the  times."  All  around  him  are  the  le- 
galized saloons,  recognized  places  of  business  with  as 
good  a  standing  before  the  law  as  his  own,  and  patronized 
by  men  in  the  highest  station.  The  very  idea  of  Pro- 
hibition is  scouted  as  foolish  and  fanatical.  He  is  adapt- 
ing himself  to  city  life.  Why  should  he  not  adapt  him- 
self to  this  phase  of  it  ?  Why  should  he  not  discard 
Prohibition  as  something  petty  and  provincial  ? 

Here,  as  in  other  cases,  it  will  be  observed,  that  it  is 
the  Ugalized  saloon  that  does  this.     The  clandestine  sale 


LOCAL    UPTIUX.  129 

in  spite  of  a  State  Proliibitory  Law  would  not  have  the 
same  effect,  for  it  would  be  an  outlawed,  criminal  thing 
which  his  honest  principles  would  brace  him  against  as 
against  other  crimes.  This  was  precisely  the  case  with 
the  Bangor  editor  of  whom  ''  Kasby"  tells,  who  said  : 
**  Up  to  twenty- one  I  never  saw  it,  and  after  that  I  did 
not  want  it."  When  he  w^ent  to  Bangor 'y^^  ivas  still  on 
Prohibition  ground.  Liquor  enough  is  sold  there,  they 
say,  but  it  is  sold  clandestinely.  In  order  to  get  it  he 
would  have  had  to  engage  in  a  law-breaking  transaction, 
and  buy  in  a  saloon  that  might  any  time  be  raided,  and 
himself  summoned  as  a  witness  before  a  criminal  court. 
There  is  no  charm  in  that  kind  of  thing  for  a  decent 
young  man  who  has  not  formed  an  appetite  for  liquor. 

Then,  too,  the  outnumbered  temperance  people  in  the 
cities  have  a  right  to  the  re-enforcement  of  the  temper- 
ance voters  in  the  rural  districts.  John  B.  Finch,  in  an 
address  delivered  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  in  1883, 
declared  : 

"  The  people  in  the  cities  where  the  evil  element  controls,  are  on- 
titled  to  protection  by  the  State.  Is  it  a  truly  brave  man  and  leader 
who  would  say  to  the  drunkard's  wife  and  child  in  Cincinnati, 
*  I  regret  that  you  live  in  the  city,  but  as  you  do,  I  see  no  help  for 
you,  for  the  saloon-keepers  control  the  city,  and  I  am  in  favor  of 
Local  Option '  ?  It  is  treason  to  God  and  humanity  to  advocate 
the  policy  of  the  State  turning  the  helpless  in  the  great  cities  over 
into  the  hands  of  the  drunkard-makers  by  Local  Option.  Ohio  is  a 
State.     Every  home  in  it  is  entitled  to  State  protection." 

Local  Option  gives  up  the  temperance  men — and  women 
—of  the  cities  to  be  governed  by  the  slums. 

3.  Local  Option  keeps  the  question  constantly  in  poli- 
tics. It  is  always  to  be  decided  over  again  at  every 
election — a  struggle  that  tends  to  weary  temperance  peo- 
ple out,  and  in  which,  by  the  trickery  of  politics,  they 


130  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOIIIBITIUN. 

are  alv^^ays  liable  to  be  conquered  by  surprise.     It  gives 
the  rum  power  the  advantage  of  ^'  eternal  hope.'* 

On  this  and  other  practical  points  we  are  able  to  call 
two  witnesses  from  Georgia,  the  banner  State  of  Local 
Option— Rev.  Wayland  Johnson,  of  Dalton  *  (already 
quoted),  and  Professor  H.  A.  Scomp,t  of  Emory  Col- 
lege, Oxford.  It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  they  know  what 
they  are  writing  about. 

Professor  Scomp  says  : 

"  Another  objection  to  Local  Option  is  that  it  is  too  temporary  and 
too  local.  Under  the  Georgia  general  law  a  county  may,  upon  peti- 
tion of  one-tenth  of  its  voters,  determine  the  question  every  two 
years.  As  the  law  allows  of  license  for  one  year,  nothing  is  more 
common  than  for  the  saloonist  to  renew  his  license  upon  some  pre- 
text after  an  election  has  been  ordered  and  before  the  result  has 
been  announced.  Then  if  Prohibition  wins,  the  dramseller  falls  liack 
upon  his  '  vested-rights  '  and  plies  his  trade  for  about  one-half  of  the 
whole  period  during  which  Prohibition  is  to  operate.  It  is  very  easy 
for  the  liquorites  to  keep  up  the  agitation  for  the  second  year,  and  hO  ■ 
the  matter  is  never  settled.  Local  Option  is  the  creature  of  cliques 
and  political  rings.  A  county  has  been  carried  for  Prohibition  but 
by  a  bare  majority.  The  liquor  men  constantly  look  forward  to  the 
opportunity  for  resuming  their  business.  Often  the  rumseller  moves 
his  saloon  just  a  few  miles,  barely  beyond  the  county  limits,  and 
brings  a  wagon  into  requisition,  which  delivers  the  liquor,  of  course 
bought  at  the  saloon  (?),  to  the  thirsty  customers.  The  law  is  too 
temporary  to  deprive  the  saloonist  of  the  confident  expectation  of  an 
early  return  to  his  former  place,  and  so  he  remains  an  active  factor 
in  opposing  it,  and  all  the  more  as  his  money  is  still  invested  in  the 
traffic.    Thus  Local  Option  nurtures  a  viper  in  its  own  bosom. 

"Local  Option  is  constantly  in  politics.  Georgia  furnishes  innu- 
merable examples  of  this— e.f/.,  of  the  111  members  of  the  House  who 
voted  for  the  Local  Option  Bill  in  1885,  only  about  twenty  were  re- 


*  "The  Weaknesses  of  Local  Option,"  in  The  Voice  of  March  22d, 
1888. 
f  "  Local  Option  in  Georgia,"  in  The  Voict  of  February  9th,  1888. 


LOCAL   OPTION.  131 

tnmed  to  the  same  branch  of  the  next"  Legislature.  The  champions 
of  Prohibition  are  steadily  relegated  to  the  shades  of  private  life  by 
the  political  bosses,  who  find  that  such  men  are  not  available  by 
reason  of  their  temperance  records.  Why  ?  The  liquor  power  is 
against  them.  Local  Option  permits  the  liquor  power  to  remain  organ- 
ized in  its  interests  in  the  State,  and  it  is  always  ready  to  seize  upon 
the  first  opportunity  to  restore  itself.  Such  opportunities  are  con- 
tinually offered  in  the  political  ring- work  around  the  court-houses." 

Mr.  Johnson  says  : 

**  There  is  not  a  county  in  the  State  where  the  question  is  settled 
within  even  a  fair  degree  of  probability.  The  condition  of  Atlanta  is 
the  condition  of  every  county  where  Prohibition  has  had  a  practical 
test.  It  is  settled  in  one  way  to-day  and  in  another  way  to-mor- 
row." 

4.  It  disintegrates  the  temperance  forces.  This  is  our 
answer  to  argument  (3)  in  its  favor. 

By  Local  Option  partial  Prohibition  may  be  sooner 
obtained,  with  all  its  disadvantages,  but  the  complete 
triumph  which  might  be  won  is  rendered  impossible.  It 
is  snatching  a  limited  and  transient  advantage  to  lose  a 
wide  and  permanent  one.  It  is  to  limit  every  temper- 
ance man's  view"  to  his  own  county  or  town.  "When  he 
can  say,  **  We  have  no  saloons  in  our  town  or  county," 
if  his  friend  replies,  ''  We  are  cursed  with  them  still," 
his  answer  is  likely  to  be,  ^'  You  must  vote  them  out  as 
we  did.  If  you  don't,  we  can't  help  it."  It  is  to  sub- 
stitute for  the  Christian  precept,  '*  Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens"  that  very  different  text,  **  The  Devil  take  the 
hindmost" — and  he  does.  It  gives  politicians  unequalled 
power  to  **  shut  up"  temperance  men.  *'  Have  you 
voted  out  your  saloons?"  ^' Yes."  *' Then  what  are 
you  fussing  about  ?  Let  other  places  do  the  same  if 
they  want  to.  If  not,  it's  none  of  your  business."  Or 
if  the  answer  is,  ''No,"  the  pnliticiim  replies,  "  Well,  if 


132  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITlOX. 

you  can't  get  them  out  of  your  one  town  or  county,  how 
do  you  think  you  could  out  of  the  whole  State  ?" 
On  this  point  Professor  Scomp  says  : 

"  Local  Option  is  the  weakest  of  bonds  for  uniting  the  people  of 
a  State  to  secure  legislative  action.  Time  and  again  has  the  query 
been  propounded  to  us  :  '  If  four-fifths  of  Georgia  is  under  Prohibi- 
tion, why  do  you  not  sweep  the  Stale  ? '  Kind  friends,  a  great 
writer  has  said  :  *  Collect  the  thunder  into  a  single  peal,  and  it  will 
rend  the  heavens  ;  divide  it  into  a  thousand  parts,  and  each  becomes 
but  a  plaything  for  a  child.'  So  of  Local  Option.  In  1884-85  the 
demand  for  a  general  law  against  liquor  was  accumulating,  heaping 
up,  80  to  speak,  ready  to  overleap  all  bounds,  and  tear  in  pieces  all 
opposition.  The  Macon  Telegraph,  a  vigorous  anti-Prohibition  pa- 
per, urged  the  Legislature  to  accede  to  the  popular  demand  for  a 
Local  Option  Law,  otherwise  the  Democratic  Party  was  likely  to  be 
rent  asunder. 

**  The  law  was  carried,  yet  to-day  the  temperance  cause  in  the 
State  would  doubtless  be  stronger  and  far  more  efficient  had  the  law 
been  defeated.  Then  the  State  was  a  iinit  and  working  for  a  com- 
mon end  and  in  hearty  co-operation.  Since  May,  1885,  no  Slate 
Temperance  Convention  has  assembled  and  no  Slate  work  has  been 
inaugurated.  The  thunder  peal  has  died  away  in  low  mutterings, 
ever  and  anon,  from  a  county  here  or  there  over  the  State. 

"Had  the  Legislature  of  1885  refused  the  law,  the  next  Legisla- 
ture would  have  been  a  most  pronounced  temperance  body,  and 
measures  more  stringent  than  the  Locil  Option  Law  would  have  been 
adopted.  But  the  combined  strength  necessary  for  State  work  was 
divided.  To  each  county  was  served  out  a  mess  of  Local  Option 
pottage,  the  smallest  possible  ration  which  could  still  or  silence  the 
hungry  cry  for  legal  Prohibition.  Temperance  was  turned  away  to 
the  counties,  and  ceased  knocking  at  the  doors  of  the  Statute-making 
Power.  Thus  with  more  of  temperance  sentiment  than  could  be 
found  in  almost  any  other  State,  Georgia  was  left  with  the  weakest 
bond  of  all  among  her  temperance  workers,  and  to-day  it  is  one  of 
the  hardest  of  Slates  to  organize  for  efifective  work  in  the  temper- 
ance cause. 

"Local  Option  has  left  Georgia  without  a  temperance  organiza- 
tion, and  with  no  plan  of  concerted  State  action.  The  forces  which 
ought  to  be  united  for  the  reduction  of  certain  liquor  strongholds 
lack  a  head  and  a  common  nV)iL'ctivc  aim. 


LOCAL    OPTION.  138 

"  Local  Option  is  of  all  fonus  of  temperance  legiKlation  the  leuftt 
able  to  resist  those  temporary  revulsions  which  come  in  the  courso 
of  every  great  moral  or  popular  movement.  Such  ebbings  of  the  tide 
leave  the  option  ship  stranded  high  and  dry— stern  seaward.  At 
such  times  of  low  sentiment  the  vigilant  enemy  is  always  ready  ;  the 
abolition  of  the  law  is  but  short  work  and  the  labor  of  years  is  over 
thrown.  Such  is  the  ultimate  fate  of  all  such  temporary  measures. 
Adopted  as  an  experiment,  the  law  continues  to  be  rpgarded  as  on 
trial  and  a  change  is  always  anticipated.  Hercules  grew  weary  of  a 
battle  perpetually  renewed,  and  the  hydra  would  eventually  have 
conquered  had  the  contest  continued  one  of  simple  endurance.  So 
temperance  men,  not  having  the  money  and  selfish  incentives  of 
their  foes,  at  last  tire  out  and  give  over  the  conflict,  usually  with  the 
promise  of  High  License,  ample  restrictions,  regulations,  etc.,  which 
promises  liquordom  never  yet  has  redeemed. 

"  The  wisest  Local  Option  temperance  men  expected  to  vse  the  meas- 
ure as  a  stepping-stone  to  genei'al  Prohibition.  '  Let  us  work  on,  re- 
deeming county  after  county,  until  not  more  than  a  dozen  liquor 
strongholds  be  left,  then  with  one  grand  coupdelat  we  will  sweep  the 
State,*  Such  was  the  popular  delusion.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
rum  power  sagaciously  conjectured  that  Local  Option  might  be  used 
as  a  breakwater  against  the  temperance  tide  about  to  flood  the  State. 
To  gain  time  and  scatter  their  opponent' s  forces  was  their  shrewd  policy. 
Local  Option  might  stave  off  the  final  doom  ;  so  it  became  the  law 
of  the  land.  A  halt  was  called,  and  temperance  enthusiasm  was  al- 
lowed to  expend  itself  in  crushing  the  hydra's  heads  in  the  counties, 
only  to  find  the  task  perpetually  renewed.  The  Prohibition  line 
was  broken,  and  rum  still  had  its  hand  upon  the  legislating  power. 
******** 

"  No,  no.  Local  Option  was  never  a  permanent  temperance  law  ; 
no  country  ever  yet  stopped  and  stayed  there.  Forward  or  backward 
must  be  the  course,  and  alas !  the  bugles  always  sound  retreat.  Best 
go  beyond  and  not  indulge  in  this  fatal  lotus-eating,  but  ground 
Prohibition  in  the  Constitution  of  the  supreme,  fundamental  law  of 
the  land," 

All  Americans  are  our  fellow-countrymen.  All  men 
are  those  for  whom  Christ  died.  This  thought  is  the 
vital  breath  of  all  missions  to  the  heathen  and  of  all 
Christian  philanthropy   at  ho'ue  ;   as  that  grand,  early 


134  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

missionary  said,  "  I  am  debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and 
to  the  barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  unwise." 
Tliis  spirit  of  Christ's  out-reaching  Gospel  must  be  ap- 
plied to  our  national  curse.  Wlierever  it  spreads  its 
wings  of  darkness  the  legions  of  temperance  reform 
must  crowd  in,  to  conquer  the  evil  for  those  who  suffer 
most  from  it,  and  have  least  power  to  defend  them- 
selves. By  all  that  we  know  of  the  blessings  of  Pro- 
hibition in  any  one  locality,  we  are  bound  to  reach  out 
to  places  yet  unredeemed.  The  temperance  men  of  the 
country  are  debtors  to  the  boys  of  the  city,  to  the  weep- 
ing mothers  and  desolate  wives  and  worse  than  orphaned 
children,  to  spread  over  them  the  aegis  of  uniform  law 
with  the  ballots — and,  if  need  be,  the  bullets — of  State 
and  Nation  behind  it.  In  such  a  day  as  this  let  no  man 
retreat  across  the  imaginary  line  of  a  municipality  and 
witness  the  slaughter  of  his  countrymen  far  and  wide 
around,  with  the  surly  question  of  the  first  murderer, 
**  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?" 

Why  have  we  never  tried  Local  Option  for  our  Tariff  ? 
The  seaports  where  public  sentiment  was  sufficient  might 
collect  duties,  and  if  goods  came  in  free  at  other  ports, 
it  would  be  because  public  sentiment  was  not  strong 
enough  to  prevent,  and  we  could  not  help  it.  Ah,  no  I 
we  will  not  leave  the  protection  of  cotton  and  woollen 
goods  to  Local  Option.  For  that  we  invoke  the  strong 
arm  of  the  Nation.  It  is  only  for  the  protection  of  our 
sons,  of  home,  humanity,  and  character,  that  we  will 
divide  the  country,  up  into  helpless  fragments  that  can- 
not combine  together. 
^  It  is  especially  bad  strategy  to  effect  this  disintegration 
and  disorganization  of  the  temperance  forces  at  a  time 
when  the  liquor  traffic  is  organizing  and  connoiidating  as 


LOCAL    OPTION'.  135 

never  before.  It  is  to  fight  by  detacliments  ngainst  a 
concentrated  army.  It  is  to  apply  a  local  ren)edy  for  a 
national  curse.  It  is  absolutely  sure  without  further  ex- 
periment that  Local  Option  can  never  relieve  onr  country 
from  the  terrible  economic  loss  of  life  and  treasure  pro- 
duced by  the  liquor  traffic. 

One  question  then  remains  :  What  practical  action 
should  Prohibitionists  take  in  regard  to  Local  Option  '{ 
We  can  best  answer  by  an  illustration  : 

Suppose  that  when  cholera  threatens  our  shores  our 
Govenmient  should  commit  all  quarantine  regulations  to 
Local  Option.  We  should  argue  and  protest  against 
such  a  law  as  unwise,  un-American,  inadequate,  and 
even  inhuman.  We  should  do  our  utmost  in  every 
honorable  way  to  get  the  people  to  see  its  folly,  and  the 
Government  to  replace  it  by  an  adequate  national  law 
which  would  defend  the  people  against  the  nationa? 
curse.  But  in  our  own  town  we  would  do  our  utmost 
to  make  local  quarantine  accomplish  all  there  was  in  it. 
We  would  appeal  to  the  council,  stir  up  the  board  of 
health,  arouse  the  citizens,  clean  the  streets,  cellars,  and 
sewers,  police  the  roads,  and  strive  by  our  local  precau- 
tions to  make  the  devastation  as  light  as  possible.  AVe 
would  do  the  same  in  all  other  towns  we  could  reach — yet 
all  the  while  maintaining  our  protest  against  the  legisla- 
tion that  gave  us  up  to  iiglit  by  counties  and  municipali- 
ties a  nation-sweeping  pestilence.  The  atmosphere  is  na- 
tional ;  the  winds  that  blow  are  continental.  The  ele- 
mental laws  rolling  in  the  pestilence  on  the  wings  of  the 
wind  would  soon  teach  us  that  no  man  liveth  and  no 
man  dieth  to  himself.  A  great  cry  would  go  up  for  a 
system  of  protection  wide  as  the  land.  None  of  us  may 
sit  seltishly  down  in  our  little  plot  of  ground  and  plu- 


13G  KCOXOMICS   OF    PHOHIBTTIOX. 

cidly  see  the  young  men  t)f  neighboring  towns  and  cities 
going  to  destruction.  If  we  do,  God  will  require  it  of 
us,  and  the  plague  we  thought  we  had  fenced  oil  shall 
somehow  find  our  sons  and  brothers  in  the  march  of  His 
avenging  Providence. 
J  The  reason  Local  Option  cannot  be  made  successful  is, 
that  God  does  not  intend  that  it  shall  be.  He  never 
meant  any  company  of  men  to  sit  down  in  safe  seclusion 
and  see  their  fellows  drift  by  to  destruction.  '^  He  hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth."  Let  those  who  are  shut  up  to  Local 
Option  wring  from  it  all  the  good  they  can,  yet  never 
resting  in  it,  but  reaching  out  beyond  their  own  narrow 
boundaries  in  the  spirit  of  a  broader  patriotism  and  a 
truer  humanity. 


CHAPTEK  X. 


SUPPLY  CREATES  DEMAND. 


"  Again,  I  flml  that  the  constitutions  treated  are  like  the  movable 
feasts,  never  twice  alike.  If  I  can  produce  the  precise  tint  of  flush- 
ing to-day,  in  a  man,  by  six  ounces  of  sherry  or  three  ounces  of  the 
finest  whiskey — the  Encore  whiskey,  for  example,  which  is  said  to 
be  the  purest— Jam  told  in  a  week  or  two  thai  the  quantity  has  lost  its 
effect,  and  that  1  must  change  the  drink  or  give  a  little  more.  Then  I 
shake  in  my  shoes,  lest  by  yielding  I  should  encourage  my  patient 
to  rely  on  the  drink,  to  increase  it  and  become  a  tippler." — A  Phy- 
sician's Letter  to  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson. 

**  But  when  the  enormous  profits  of  brewing  came  to  be  known, 
when  men  hungering  for  money  saw  there  was  a  net  profit  of  from 
$1  to  $2  on  every  barrel  sold,  capital  and  business  capacity  were  put 
into  it,  and  the  style  of  conducting  the  business  was  changed  en- 
tirely. 

**  When  you  went  into  the  business  you  did  not  wait  for  a  demand 
for  your  stuff,  but  you  set  about  creating  a  demand.  And  you  went 
abont  your  work  cleverly.  You  established  beer  shops  where  there 
had  never  been  a  call  for  them,  and  you  proceeded  with  an  ingenuity 
that  was  devilish  and  a  persistency  that  was  infernal  to  make  cus- 
tomers for  your  product.  You  laid  traps  for  the  people.  You  took 
houses  and  rooms  eveiy  where,  and  put  into  them  men  fitted  by 
nature  for  the  business,  and  made  it  to  their  profit  to  entice  men  and 
boys  into  your  places  to  be  taught  to  drink  beer.  The  number 
who*se  stomachs  were  already  trained  to  the  liquid  were  altogether 
too  few  for  your  purpose,  and  you  began  a  regular  systematic  recruit- 
ing of  the  ranks  of  drunkards,  which  you  have  faithfully  followed 
ever  since,  your  success  in  this  nefarious  trade  increasing  with  the 
money  you  make  by  it." — 77te  Toledo  Blade— Reply  to  Letter  of  an  In- 
dignant Brewer. 

The  usual  law  of  economics  is,  that  demand  creates 
supply.     Let  there  be  a  great  influx  into  any  region  of  a 


138  EGOXOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

population  who  must  be  fed,  and  there  will  be  more  farm 
labor  invested  and  transportation  facilities  created  to 
supply  the  demand  for  food. 

But  with  luxuries  the  case  is  often  different,  and  the 
supply  creates  the  demand. 

One  carpet  or  piano  introduced  into  a  backwoods  set- 
tlement will  create  a  demand  unfelt  before.  The  sa- 
gacious Romans  understood  this,  and  hence  held  their 
conquests  so  long.  The  barbarians  were  terrible  because 
their  only  trade  was  war.  It  was  their  only  pastime, 
too.  The  Roman  commanders  encouraged  merchants  to 
follow  in  the  track  of  their  armies,  and  to  introduce  the 
luxuries  and  refinements  of  civilization,  till  there  arose  a 
demand  for  them  which  would  make  the  conquered  peo- 
ple averse  to  war  and  even  glad  of  the  Roman  authority, 
which  made  possible  among  them  the  arts  of  peace. 

But  this  is  especially  the  law  of  vices.  One  gambling 
hall  or  one  well-advertised  lottery  introduced  into  the 
most  moral  town  will  soon  develop  a  passion  for  gam- 
bling among  numbers  of  men  who  would  otherwise  have 
gone  through  life  without  thinking  of  such  a  thing  as 
possible.  The  opening  of  a  house  of  prostitution  in  the 
most  quiet  district  is  a  signal  to  all  decent  families  to 
arise  and  be  gone.  It  is  not  merely  the  fear  of  the  dis- 
order that  will  come  in.  It  is  that  all  who  have  families 
to  care  for  know  that  the  vicious  element  will  create  a 
rapidly-increasing  demand  for  vicious  indulgence. 

This  is  most  emphatically  true  of  intoxicating  drink. 
It  appeals  to  no  natural  demand  of  a  healthy  human  or- 
gianization. 

Dr.  Felix  L.  Oswald  writes  : 

"  Dogs,  cows,  horses,  sheep,  and  even  hogs  shrink  from  the  taste 
of  rum  as  they  would  shrink  from  the  bitter  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea. 


SUPPLY  CREATES  DEMAND.  139 

After  days  of  burning  thirst,  a  caged  wolf  will  still  turn  with  loath- 
ing from  a  pailful  of  lager  beor  ;  and  the  beasts  of  the  wilderness 
would  prefer  the  most  insipid  ditch-water  to  the  best  flavored  wine. 
The  oft-repeated  fable  that  the  Abyssinian  baboons  can  be  captured 
by  the  simple  plan  of  exposing  pots  full  of  intoxicating  drinks, 
seemed  to  imply  an  exception  from  that  general  rule,  till  the  natu- 
ralist Brchm  ascertained  the  fact  that  the  taste  of  the  noxious  liquor 
ha-?  to  be  disguised  by  a  large  admixture  of  syrup,  and  that,  instead 
of  being  attracted  by  the  fumes  of  the  brandj',  the  victims  of  that 
stratagem  are  in  fact  stupefied  by  brandy-drugged  syrup  or  honey, 
as  they  might  be  killed  with  sugar-coated  strj-chnine  pills.  The 
trapper  who  kills  wolves  by  scattering  their  haunts  with  pieces  of 
poisoned  meat  might  as  well  suppose  that  the  dupes  of  his  trick  had 
been  attracted  by  the  scent  of  the  poison.  To  animals  in  a  state  of 
nature  the  undisguised  taste  of  alcohol  in  all  its  forms  is  invariably 
repulsive. 

"Has  man  alone  lost  that  protective  instinct  of  his  fellow- crea- 
tures i  The  truth  is,  that  no  other  protective  instinct  of  our  fellow- 
creatures  is  more  fully  shared  by  man  than  the  instinctive  aversion 
to  the  noxious  products  of  fermentation.  To  the  palate  of  an  unse- 
duced  child  lager  beer  is  as  unattractive  as  cesspool  water,  brandy 
as  nauseous  as  turpentine,  pure  alcohol  as  shockingly  repulsive  as 
sulphate  of  quinine.  In  other  words,  nature  has  not  waited  for  the 
advent  of  Greek  dictionaries  and  abstruse  lectures  on  analytical 
chemistry,  but,  in  a  language  as  intelligible  to  children  and  savages 
as  to  scholars  and  sages,  has  ever  denounced  alcohol  as  a  foo  to 
health  and  life.  That  warning  reaches  every  class  of  creatures,  down 
to  the  animalculse  of  the  duck  pond,  the  tiny  inhabitants  of  a  water- 
drop  which,  under  the  lens  of  a  microscope,  can  bo  seen  wriggling 
with  animated  specks  of  all  possible  forms,  every  one  of  which  will 
instantly  dart  to  the  opposite  corner  of  its  little  sea  if  its  fluid  should 
at  any  point  be  polluted  with  a  spray  of  alcohol.  The  same  warning 
comes  even  to  the  child  of  the  confirmed  drunkard,  for  no  fact  in 
human  physiology  has  been  demonstrated  by  more  abundant  proofs 
than  the  truth  that  no  human  being  was  ever  boi^x  with  a  passion  for 
alcoholic  beverages.  That  passion  may  be  acquired  in  some  cases 
more  easily  than  in  others,  but  its  first  development  is  always  due  to 
the  influence  of  evil  associations,  never  to  the  promptings  of  an  in- 
nate appetite  ;  and  a  strict  investigation  of  alleged  exceptions  would 
only  confirm  the  correctness  of  Dr.  Zimmerman's  remark,  that  *  the 
effects  of  education  are  too  often  mistalcen  for  hereditary  tendencies.' 


140  ECOXOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

it  might,  iodeed,  be  questioned  if  the  taste  of  any  other  poison  is 
more  universally  abhorred  bj'  all  nnperverted  children  of  nature  than 
the  taste  of  alcoholic  fluids." 

\j  Yet  alcohol  has  the  power  of  creating  in  any  human 
constitution  an  artificial  demand  as  mysterious  as  it  is 
undeniable  and  deplorable.  The  following  incident  hiss 
gone  the  rounds  of  the  papers,  and  no  one  seems  to  have 
thought  of  denying  it  : 

A  Cincinnati  merchant  was  advised  by  his  physician 
to  take  a  tablespoonful  of  brandy  in  a  glass  of  water 
every  day  after  dinner.  In  a  short  time  he  said  to  his 
wife,  '^  You  are  not  giving  me  the  full  amount  these 
last  few  days.  It  does  not  Jiave  the  same  effect."  A 
week  or  two  passed  without  remark,  when  he  again  com 
*  plained  :  *'  Wife,  you  have  been  reducing  the  amount 
of  the  brandy  again.  I  can  feel  the  difference."  The 
wife  answered,  '^  My  dear,  since  you  spoke  of  it  before, 
I  have  been  giving  you  two  tablespoonfuls  every  day." 
The  merchant  leaned  back  in  his  chair  with  sudden  as- 
tonishment, and  said  :  ^'  If  that  is  the  case,  1  will  have 
no  more  of  it."  We  cannot  get  beyond  the  ancient 
words,  *'  Wine  is  a  mocker." 

Let  any  man  with  capital  enough — it  does  not  take 
much — to  simply  wait,  start  a  saloon  in  the  most  tem- 
perate village,  and  he  can  surely  build  up  a  trade.  There 
are  the  idlers  who  sit  around  the  grocery  in  more  or  less 
unprofitable  talk,  but  ultimately  get  tired  of  each  other 
and  go  home.  They  have  wasted  time,  but  no  cash. 
They  are  not  tempted  to  gorge  themselves  on  crackers 
and  herrings.  The  saloon-keeper  makes  it  pleasant  for 
them  to  drop  in  there.  It  is  light  and  warm.  There 
are  no  customers  to  bother  them,  and  no  ladies  to  put  a 
restraint  on  anything  tlipy  chonso  to  pay.     The  proprie- 


SUPPLY  CREATES  DEMAND.  141 

tor  *' treats"  them  to  an  occasional  glass.  It  is  the 
cheapest  of  advertisements.  Their  sluggish  brains  are 
stimulated.  They  suddenly  find  a  motive  in  life.  They 
can  get  stimulus  without  exertion.  A  shamefaced 
*•  honor"  requires  them  to  buy  something  of  the  man 
who  keeps  open  a  place  for  them,  and  who  has  actually 
given  them  some  of  his  wares.  A  few  evenings  make 
them  sure  customers.  A  crowd  attracts  a  crowd. 
Others  will  drop  in  because  they  are  there.  Any  man 
who  wants  to  see  them  on  any  business  must  look  there 
for  them.  Boys  are  inclined  to  linger  where  men  gather. 
Games  of  cards,  checkers,  etc.,  are  introduced  to  increase 
the  attraction.  Every  man  who  has  learned  to  drink  in- 
vites his  friends  to  the  saloon.  The  tired  laborer,  com- 
ing home  in  the  hot  evening,  sees  before  him  the  sign, 
**  Ice  Cold  Lager  Beer."  The  saloon  man  stands  in  his 
door,  talks  of  the  hot  day  and  the  hard  work,  and  in- 
vites him  in  to  rest  and  take  a  cool  drink.  *'  It  will 
make  you  feel  better."  And  it  does — for  the  time. 
That  man  will  come  again.  In  a  little  while  he  will  not 
be  able  to  go  home  without  his  beer.  If  he  does  he  will 
be  miserable  all  the  evening. 

A  good  supper  does  not  restore  his  energies,  nor  the 
quiet  of  his  home  rest  him  as  it  used  to  do.  The  disease 
of  alcoholism  is  established.  When  winter  comes  the 
appeal  changes  from  ''  Ice  Cold  Beer"  to  ''  Hot  Tom 
and  Jerry,"  which  flushes  the  whole  surface  of  the  body, 
with  its  deceitful  warmth,  leaving  tho  vital  organs  rapid- 
ly to  chill,  demanding  more  of  the  stimulant  to  throw 
the  blood  to  the  surface  again.  With  a  retinue  of  such 
customers  the  saloon  is  fairly  started.  With  its  profit  of 
four  hundred  per  cent,  on  the  original  cost  of  the  liquor, 
it  has  become  a  paying  business.      Abolish  it  now.  and 


142  ECOXOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

its  regular  patrous  will  go  to  distaat  cities  to  get  their 
drink,  or  smuggle  it  secretly  in.  Then  shallow  econ- 
/  omists  talk  of  the  "  demand."  There  is  a  demand,  hut 
it  has  heen  created  hy  the  supply.  This  thing  can  be 
done  in  any  town  within  one  year,  unless  stopped  by  law 
or  fought  by  the  most  vigorous  and  united  efforts  of 
churches  and  temperance  societies  that  have  a  very  strong 
hold  on  the  community — and  often  in  spite  of  the  very 
utmost  that  they  can  do. 

This  explains  the  furious  opposition  of  liquor  men  to 
the  laws  of  Prohibition  States.  They  parade  the  figures 
of  the  amount  of  liquor  they  smuggle  in,  and  of  the 
*' dives"  and  ''joints"  that  flourish  in  Kansas,  Iowa, 
and  Maine.  Then  they  ''  agitate"  for  a  repeal  of  the 
law,  and  pour  out  money  like  water  to  get  it  repealed. 
We  protest  that,  on  their  statement  of  the  case,  this  is 
not  possible  for  human  nature.  Here  is  a  Chicago  dis- 
tiller who  finds  by  his  books  that  he  is  sending  more 
liquor  into  Iowa  than  into  any  license  State  of  equal 
population.  There  is  no  drawback  of  license.  If  he 
sells  direct  to  consumers,  he  gets  retail  prices.  What 
on  earth  does  he  want  that  law  repealed  for  f  From 
the  case,  as  he  states  it,  there  is  no  conceivable  reason. 
From  the  real  facts  there  is  every  reason.  There  are 
liundreds  of  towns  and  villages  where  boys  are  growing 
to  manhood  without  ever  tasting  liquor— where  men  go 
on  their  way  without  ever  wanting  it.  In  those  places, 
tlie  ''  bootlegger"  would  be  more  apt  to  get  another 
man's  boot  than  to  sell  any  out  of  his  own.  Every 
liquor-dealer  knows  that  by  establishing  legalized  saloons 
in  such  towns  he  can  within  a  year  create  a  demand 
which  will  be  permanent  and  increasing.  The  ''  trade" 
can  afford  to  spend  a  million  to  create  that  demand  in 


SUPPLY    CREATES   DEMAND.  143 

Iowa  or  in  Maine.     They  are  ready  to  do  it.     It  would 
bo  a  good  business  investment. 

Even  in  the  cities  where  the  law  is  most  poorly  en- 
forced, legal  selling  would  immensely  increase  the  sale. 
We  indignantly  deny  that  slander  upon  American  boy- 
hood and  manhood,  that  it  **  wants  to  do  a  thing  as  soon 
as  you  make  a  law  against  it."  The  man  who  says  that 
is  not  to  be  trusted  anywhere.  He  simply  advertises 
himself  as  of  rascally  instincts,  or  accustomed  to  ras- 
cally society.  Does  the  law  against  murder  fill  our 
boys  with  a  niging  desire  to  kill  somebody  ?  Does 
the  law  against  stealing  make  honest  clerks  itch  to  get 
their  hands  into  their  employers'  till  ?  Are  we  likely 
to  have  an  increase  of  defaulting  cashiers  now  they  know 
they  can  be  extradited  from  Canada?  Every  one 
who  knows  decent  boys  and  young  men  knows  that, 
while  they  regard  the  absence  of  law  as  permission,  they 
will  be  kept  back  by  self-respect  and  regard  for  the 
opinion  of  others  from  visiting  unlawful  places  unless 
under  the  influence  of  strong  persuasion,  generally  at- 
tended with  a  previous  undermining  of  moral  principle. 
The  ambitious  clerk  in  a  nice  store  is  not  going  to  be 
seen  by  his  employer  or  his  customers  sneaking  into  a 
cellar  for  a  drink  of  whiskey.  He  is  not  going  to  know 
that  fact  about  himself.  But  open  one  on  the  same  block, 
as  elegant  in  all  its  appointments  as  the  store  he  keeps 
in  ;  have  its  doors  swing  open  from  the  sidewalk  ;  let 
him  see  men  of  fashion  and  influence  going  and  coming 
there,  and  the  whole  case  is  changed.  It  may  be  literal- 
ly true  in  the  beginning  that  he  goes  there  ^*  to  see  a 
man'' — to  collect  a  bill,  close  a  bargain,  make  an  ap- 
pointment. It  has  become  one  of  the  regular  places  of 
business  of  the  citv,   and  he   rcadilv   drifts   i?i.      So  far 


144  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

from  its  being  a  recommendation  of  any  so-called  ''  re- 
strictive" law  that  "  it  abolishes  the  dives,"  that  is  the 
worst  thing  that  can  be  said  about  it.  If  liquor  must  be 
sold,  let  it  be  sold  only  in  '^  dives."  Let  the  old  topers 
drink  themselves  to  death  there  if  they  must.  The  l)oys 
and  young  men  of  the  better  class  will  be  saved.  With 
them  the  *'  dives"  will  be  the  strongest  temperance  ar- 
gument. The  shrewd  and  temperate  Spartans  used  to 
call  in  their  slaves  at  times  and  make  them  drink  while 
their  sons,  without  tasting  the  liquor,  looked  on  at  the 
disgusting  spectacle,  and  imbibed  a  life-long  contempt 
for  drunkenness  and  all  that  would  produce  it.  The 
**  dives" — if  they  must  exist — may  be  the  Helots  of  our 
civilization,  and  save  all  our  boys  who  have  not  the  spirit 
of  a  slave.  But  the  legalized  and  gilded  saloon  is  capable 
of  awakening  in  the  best  of  them  a  demand  else  un- 
known, but  which,  once  awakened,  shall  become  a  de- 
structive madness. 

It  is  for  this  that  the  liquor  traffic  is  **  agitating."  It 
is  for  this  that  it  is  using  all  its  *'  pull  "  upon  subservient 
politicians.  For  this  it  is  using  its  hold  upon  the  daily 
press  to  trumpet  far  and  wide  ^'  The  Failure  of  Prohibi- 
tion," thus  preparing  public  opinion  for*  its  repeal.  For 
this  it  is  working  underground  with  its  vast  corruption 
fund.  The  liquor  barons  are  not  satisfied  with  their  un- 
])arallelud  gains — as  no  avarice  ever  yet  was  satisfied. 
They  must  have  this  whole  land  for  their  camping-ground 
from  sea  to  sea. 

These  are  not  the  words  of  a  dreamer  in  the  study. 
D.  R.  Locke,  the  renowned  ^*  Nasby,"  the  editor, 
politician,  and  man  of  the  world,  said  in  his  pamphlet  on 
'*  Prohibition  :" 

"  The  vast  brewing  CHtablislimenU  of  Milwaukee,  CincinnaM,  To- 


SL^PPLY    CREATES    DEMAXD.  145 

ledo,  and  Rochester  have  millions  invested  in  this  biisinosB,  and 
their  sucoess  in  the  introduction  of  their  beer  may  be  measured  by 
their  wealth.  They  are  the  richest  corporations  in  the  country,  and 
no  instances  are  known  where,  with  fair  business  management,  they 
have  not  amassed  enormous  fortunes. 

**  They  keep  energetic  men  travcliin'^  all  the  time  establishing  sa- 
loons. In  the  city  of  Toledo,  with  90,000  population,  they  have  800, 
and  the  number  is  constantly  and  rapidly  increasing.  A  corporation 
cannot  break  ground  in  the  suburbs  for  a  factory  that  the  brewer's 
agent  is  not  there  to  purchase  a  lot  upon  which  to  erect  a  saloon, 
and  the  moment  an  addition  to  the  city  is  platted,  a  saloon  is  the 
first  building  that  goes  up.  They  know  every  workingman  and  the 
wages  he  gets,  and  they  demand  their  share  of  it,  and  generally  get 
it. 

"  Did  they  confine- their  operations  to  the  cities  it  wonld  not  be  so 
bad,  but  they  do  not.  They  have  invaded  the  country,  and  there  is 
scarcely  a  hamlet  or  cross-roads  in  which  they  are  not  represented. 
With  millions  of  capital,  with  an  energy  that  is  wonderful,  with  all 
the  zeal  that  cupidity  inspires  and  feeds,  they  are  everywhere.  There 
is  not  a  family  that  they  do  not  threaten,  nor  one  that  is  outside 
their  influence. 

"It  is  this  aggressive  feature  of  the  trade  which  has  awakened  a 
demand  for  the  interposition  of  the  law  to  prohibit  instead  of  re- 
straining. Heavy  taxation  of  the  traflBc  has  no  efiFect,  for  the  profits 
of  the  business  are  so  great  that  no  taxation  has  ever  been  reached 
that  they  could  not  laugh  at.  The  profit  on  beer  is  enormous,  and 
they  have  a  safeguard  against  taxation  in  this,  that  they  make  their 
own  prices  and  they  have  possession  of  their  customers." 

District  Secretary,  Edward  Ellis,  of  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  said,  in  a  public  meeting  : 

*'  I  have  been  trying  for  ten  years  to  get  ahead  of  the  saloon^  and 
never  yet  have  succeeded.  I  have  gone  to  towns  that  were  only 
shanties,  and  have  found  it  there.  I  have  gone  to  towns  that  were 
only  in  tents,  and  have  found  it  there.  I  have  gone  to  towns  that 
were  only  in  wagons,  and  there  I  have  found  some  wagon  selling 
■whiskey  over  the  tail-board.  Everj'where  the  saloon  was  ahead  of 
civilization  and  the  Gospel." 

The  Brooklyn  Faf/le  (Democratic)  makes  the  follow- 
ing statements  : 


146  ECOXOMICS    OF    TKOHIBITIOX. 

**  The  brewers  are  at  fault.  Hunt  the  statistics  of  the  output  of 
malt  liquor  during  the  past  five  years,  and  they  will  explain  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  saloons.  Why,  if  I  told  you  that  of  the  sixty 
groggeries  now  in  operation  in  this  parish  over  thirty  were  owned 
by  brewers  you  wouldn't  believe  me,  yet  such  is  the  case.  They 
operate  iu  thjs  way  :  For  instance,  if  a  man  is  a  good  fellow,  genial 
and  popular  in  the  section  in  which  he  wishes  to  open,  he  needs 
little  or  no  money  to  start  a  saloon.  The  funds  are  furnished  by  the 
firm,  who  only  stipulate  that  the  saloon-keeper  shall  as  long  as  he  is 
indebted  to  them  sell  their  beer.  The  brewer  takes  a  mortgage,  of 
the  iron-clad  chattel  description,  on  the  stock  and  fixtures,  and  so 
stands  to  lose  but  very  little.  He  always  has  the  best  of  the  bargain, 
as  such  customers  pay  more  for  their  beer  than  those  who  are  not 
under  obligations  to  tho  maker  of  it. 

"It  has  long  been  known  that  of  the  3,500  saloons  in  Brooklyn 
less  than  one-third  are  owned  by  the  individual  operating  them. 
The  Sixth  Ward  saloon-keeper  is  right.  If  Father  Fransioli  and  the 
other  good  priests  of  St.  Peter's,  together  with  local  temperance 
reformers  generally,  want  to  secure  less  rum  selling  they  must  make 
their  fight  against  the  principal  and  not  the  agent." 

The  concentrated  national  liquor  traffic  is  one 
VAST  organized  TEMPTATION.  It  is  like  a  wild  beast 
waiting,  watching  for  victims,  especially  for  boys,  with 
their  unformed  characters,  strong  energies  and  passions, 
and  their  prospective  earning  power.  This  trnjiic,  with 
its  uncounted  millions  of  capital  and  its  hall"  million 
closely  organized  workei-s,  is  watching  around  all  our 
cities,  villages,  and  homes — its  "  business"  to  destroy 
by  creating  a  fire  of  demand  that  shall  burn  to  tho  lowest 
hell. 

All  the  original  ^tendencies  of  alcoholic  drinks  are  art- 
fully reinforced  by  those  who  furnish  the  supply,  that 
they  may  create  a  quicker  and  more  overmastering  de- 
mand.    Says  **  Nasby"  : 

"  The  roan  who  comes  to  stopping  nt  a  place  of  this  kind  every 
night  and  taking  one  glass,  within  u  week  funis  a  half  dozen  neces- 


sri>l»LY    CREATKS    DKMANh.  1-^7 

sary.  And  the  seller  helps  him  along  the  downward  road  as  rapidly 
as  possible.  There  is  always  upon  the  counter  a  plate  of  pickled 
codfish,  or  rod  herrings  cut  into  proper  lengths,  or  pretzels  covered 
with  salt — all  thirst-provokers — and  they  actually  put  salt  into  the 
beer,  that  the  desire  for  the  pleasant  liquor  may  be  increased.  Beer 
becomes  a  necessity  to  him  before  he  is  awaro  of  it,  and  his  fate  is 
fixed.  The  seller  can  count  upon  so  much  a  day  from  him  as  cer- 
tainly as  though  he  had  it  in  his  till. 

•Just  as  tin's  volume  goes  to  press,  there  conies  to  hand 
the  New  York  Times  of  May  5th,  with  the  following  story 
strikingly  illustrating  the  claims  of  this  chapter.  A  great 
crowd  visited  Rockaway  the  first  Sunday  in  May,  but 
for  some  reason  ^'preferred  to  wander  through  the  paths' ' 
rather  than  visit  the  saloons.  As  the  afternoon  wore 
on,  *' a  hurried  consultation"  was  held.  An  insignificant 
shed  suddenly  took  fire.  The  church  bells  were  rung. 
The  fire  department  was  summoned. 

'•  Meanwhile  all  Rockaway  turned  out.  The  crowd  of  visitors 
hastened  to  the  scene  of  the  conflagration,  the  report  having  reached 
the  upper  section  of  the  beach  that  the  Seaside  was  in  flames.  When 
the  mob  reached  the  shed,  somebody  with  rare  presence  of  mind 
stamped  out  the  fire.  But  the  crowd  was  there,  and  they  turned 
into  the  saloons  and  hotels  in  a  manner  highly  gratifying  to  the  pro- 
prietors. The  firemen,  hungry  with  the  exertion  of  drawing  hook 
and  ladder  through  the  sand,  attacked  the  sandwiches.  Extra  men 
were  required  to  tap  the  beer.  The  faces  of  the  innkeepers  relaxed 
into  broad  smiles,  and  they  congratulated  the  firemen  upon  their 
prompt  appearance,  speculating  meanwhile  upon  what  the  danger 
might  have  been  had  a  hurricane  been  blowing. 

"  It  is  safe  to  conjecture  that  the  Fire  Marshal  will  never  ascertain 
the  cause  of  yesterday's  fire." 

It  is  not  good  political  economy  for  the  State  to  allow 
a  demand  to  be  created  for  a  product  which  is  only  an 
economic  curse. 


CHAPTER    XI. 


THE    TRUE    RESTRICTION. 


**  *  Shall  the  throne  of  iniquity  have  fellowship  with  thee,  which 
frameth  mischief  by  a  law  ?  '  A  law  framed  to  protect  evil  is  a  method 
of  framing  mischief  by  a  law.  A  law  which  assumes  that  a  thing  is 
wrong,  and  yet  tolerates  it  ;  which  attempts  only  to  check  and  regu- 
late it,  without  utterly  prohibiting  it  ;  which  aims  to  derive  a  rev- 
enue from  it  for  the  purpose  of  government  ;  which  makes  that, 
which  is  morally  wrong  legal,  is  one  of  those  things  in  human  affairs 
with  which  the  throne  of  God  can  have  no  fellowship." — Rev.  Albert 
Barnes. 

"  The  evil  [intemperance]  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  grow  in 
order  that  the  police  may  be  called  in  to  repress  it.  Prevention  is 
not  only  better  than  cure,  but  prevention  is  a  duty,  and  cure  is  a 
lame,  halting  attempt  to  undo  an  evil  which  we  have  wilfully  per- 
mitted,"— Cardinal  Manning. 

The  restriction  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  encompassed 
with  some  insuperable  difficulties  which  many  of  its  most 
earnest  advocates  utterly  fail  to  consider.  When  tem- 
perance men  are  not  satisfied  with  High  License  and 
similar  policies  which  are  offered  as  restrictive-measures, 
they  say,  **  You  are  so  impracticable  !"  *'  What  do  you 
want  ?"     Well,  let  us  consider  a  moment  • 

WHAT   temperance   MEN    DO    WANT. 

1/  1.  First,  then,  temperance  men  want  to  reduce  intem- 
perance. This  is  certainly  a  quiet  and  reasonable  state- 
ment. 

Now  note  the  following 


THE   TRUE    RESTRICTION. 


149 


PABAIJ.JX    PROPOSITIONS 


2.  Intemperance  is  in  direct 
proportion  to  the  amount  of  liquor 
consumed. 

3.  Any  restriction  ■which  re- 
daces  intemperance  will  reduce 
the  amount  of  liquor  consumed. 

4.  Any  restriction  which  does 
not  reduce  the  amount  of  liquor 
consumed  neither  can  be  nor  ought 
to  be  acceptable   to   temperance 


2.  The  income  of  distillery, 
brewery,  and  saloon  is  in  direct 
proportion  to  the  amxmnt  of  liquor 
consume. 

3.  Any  restriction  which  re- 
duces intemperance  will  reduce 
the  income  of  distillery,  brewery, 
and  saloon. 

4.  Any  restriction  which  does 
not  reduce  the  income  of  distillery, 
brewery,  and  saloon  cannot  reduce 
intemperance,  and  neither  can  be 
nor  ought  to  be  acceptable  to 
temperance  men. 


Any  one  who  will  carefully  study  these  parallel  prop- 
ositions will  see  that 


THE    DIFFICULTY    18    IN    THE    PROBLEM, 

ex  hypothesis  as  mathematicians  say  ;  that  is,  it  is  in  the 
very  terms  of  the  original  proposition,  and  must  infallibly 
appear  in  any  conclusion  that  can  be  worked  out  from 
them.  For  temperance  means  the  reducing  of  intem- 
perance, and  of  all  that  'produces  it.     But, 

5.   Any  restriction  which  reduces  tJie  income  of  distil- 
lery, brewery,  and  saloon  will  be 

BrPTERLY   CONTESTED    BY    LIQUOR-DEALERS, 

and  will  be  almost  as  hard  to  enforce  as  Prohibition — 
perhaps  harder,  as  it  is  more  difficult  to  make  a  building 
burn  quietly  and  moderately  than  to  put  out  the  fire  al- 
together. Therefore,  when  any  brilliant  genius  fancies 
he  has  discovered  a  ''  restriction  which  will  be  at  once 
*  popular  '  with  liquor-dealers  and  *  satisfactory  '  to  tem- 
perance men,"*'  lie  had  better  quietly  hide  away  his  discov- 


150 


ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION". 


ery  and  turn  his  energies  to  the  invention  of  perpetual 
motion,  which  has  been  the  occupation  of  unbalanced 
minds  in  all  ages,  and  is  likely  to  be  sooner  accomplished 
and  more  beneficial  to  the  human  race.     For,  to  put 

THE   MATTEB  IN   A   NUTSHELL, 


Temperance  men  want  to  abol- 
ish intemperance,  because  it  is 
the  ruin  of  humanity. 


Liquor-dealers  do  not  want  to 
abolish  intemperance,  because 
that  would  be  ;the  ruin  of  their 
business. 


No  human  mind  can  unite  these  irreconcilable  things 
in  one  policy,  acceptable  tp  both  temperance  people  and 
liquor-dealers. 

Many  well-meaning  temperance  people  supported  High 
License  in  the  States  where  it  has  been  adopted,  or  it 
never  could  have  been  adopted.  Many  such,  in  other 
States,  not  aware  how  the  experiment  has  failed  where 
already  tried,  now  favor  the  system  in  States  where  it 
has  not  been  tried.  They  look  upon  it,  and  are  strenu- 
ously urged  to  regard  it  as  part  of  a  system  of  gradual 
approaches  toward  complete  Prohibition.  But  the  trouble 
with  all  these  gradual  approaches  is  that  they  do  not  ap- 
proach. They  are  not  steps  toward  the  extinction  of  the 
traffic,  but  after  years  of  trial  they  leave  it  richer, 
stronger,  more  firmly  intrenched,  with  no  decrease  of 
drunkenness  in  the  interval.  There  is,  however,  a  re- 
striction which  will  meet  all  the  requirements  of  honest 
but  cautious  temperance  men  ;  which  will  at  once  stamp 
out  the  saloons  in  the  rural  districts  ;  which  will  greatly 
reduce  their  number  in  large  towns,  and  put  those  which 
remain  under  such  restraints  that  the  sale  of  liquor  in 
the  whole  place  will  be  diminished  from  about  fifty  to 
seventy-five  per  cent.,  and  which  will  put  the  trafhc  in 


THE   TRUE   RESTRICTION.  151 

the  way  of  gradual  extinction  even  in  large  cities.  It 
meets  all  the  requirements  of  the  demand  for  **  restric- 
tion with  a  view  to  ultimate  Prohibition." 

IT    18    PROHIBITION. 

Its  enemies  say,  **  You  cannot  enforce  it  in  the  great 
cities."  We  know  we  cannot  as  fast  as  we  would.  We 
have  to  admit  that  the  resistance  will  be  stubborn  and 
the  victory  slow.  Tlie  result  there  at  first  will  be  just 
restriction,  but  the  best  restriction  ever  introduced.  Tlie 
traffic  will  be  outlawed,  its  debts  uncollectible.  Palatial 
saloons  will  vanish.  Great  breweries  and  distilleries  will 
be  closed.  Capital  will  be  shy  of  taking  any  risks  in  the 
business,  and  will  soon  be  diverted  beyond  recall  into 
other  channels.  Saloon-drinking  and  saloon-treating  will 
become  unpopular,  and  be  practised  only  by  those  whose 
respectability  is  below  par. 

Prof.  A.  E.  Cornwall,  of  Aberdeen,  S.  D.,  says,  ^'  The 
saloons  of  Omaha  are  gilded  hells  ;  in  Council  Bluffs 
they  are  in  old  rookeries  and  back  alleys,  and  are  hated 
and  despised  by  all  respectable  people.  They  have  no 
power  to  attract  or  tempt  the  better  class  of  young  men.' ' 

A  prominent  merchant  of  Kansas  told  us  this  incident 
from  his  own  experience.  '*  I  had  a  nephew  in  Ohio, "  he 
said,  * '  who  was  getting  to  be  a  pretty  wild  boy.  His 
mother  wanted  me  to  take  him  out  with  me,  and  see  if  1 
couldn't  save  him.  He  worked  in  our  store  about  two 
weeks,  and  seemed  to  be  doing  very  well.     Then,  one 

morning,  a  gentleman  came  to  me,  and  said,  ^  Mr. , 

I  am  obliged  to  inform  you  that  that  new  clerk  of  yours 

has   been    drinking   beer  in  the  back   room    of    's 

drug-store.'  I  thanked  my  informant,  and,  after  he  was 
gone,  called  my  nephew  into  the  private  office,  and  stated 


152  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITION. 

the  case  to  him,  and  said  to  him,  '  This  cannot  be  allowed. 
If  it  happens  again,  it  will  mean  dismissal.  1  cannot 
protect  you,  for  my  partners  insist  that  a  man  who  will 
sneak  away  to  get  a  drink  of  liquor  contrary  to  law  is  not 
to  be  trusted  in  any  capacity,  and  they  will  not  have  him 
in  our  employ.'  ^  Uncle,'  said  he,  ^  that's  the  first  drink 
I've  taken  since  I  came  here,  and  they've  spotted  me. 
You  can  depend  on  me.  I  won't  do  it  again. ' "  He 
kept  his  word,  and  has  become  a  temperate,  trusted,  and 
prosperous  man. 

What  ^'  restrictive"  law  could  have  been  so  effectual 
as  that  ?  If  the  saloons  in  that  city  had  been  cut  down 
to  one  hundred,  or  to  ten,  an,d  those  legalized,  it  would 
not  have  been  against  the  young  man's  honesty  or  re- 
spectability to  visit  one  of  those  legalized  saloons.  The 
fatal  thing  was  to  visit  an  outlawed  '*  joint." 

Another  instance  fell  under  the  writer's  own  eye.  It 
was  in  a  village  which  had  lately  adopted  Local  Prohibi- 
tion. The  saloons  were  still  fighting  the  ordinance, 
thougli  professing  to  sell  no  liquor.  Two  men  from  the 
country  drove  in  at  a  flying  rate  behind  a  good  horse, 
straight  to  a  door  of  a  saloon.  They  sprang  out,  hitched 
the  horse,  and  started  to  enter.  Just  then  they  spied  a 
fine,  tall,  square-looking  young  fellow  coming  up  the 
sidewalk.  They  hailed  him,  shook  hands  heartily,  said 
something  to  him  which  I  did  not  hear,  but  all  three 
turned  and  started  back  to  the  saloon.  In  the  door  stood 
the  idle  barkeeper.  As  the  three  crowded  to  the  door, 
he  said  something  to  them  which  produced  visible  con- 
sternation. All  stopped  short  with  very  blank  faces,  and 
consulted  together.  While  they  stood  irresolute,  the 
barkeeper  leaned  forward  and  said  a  word  or  two  ;  then, 
with  a  sh'ght  beckoning  motion,  turned  and  wont  through 


THK    THli:    KKSTKKTIOX.  1  .VJ 

the  saloon  into  a  back  room.  One  of  the  older  men 
nudged  the  other.  Both  laughed  and  started  to  follow. 
One  of  them,  as  he  did  so,  laid  his  hand  on  the  young 
man's  shoulder,  saying,  '^  Come  on  !"  The  young -man 
straightened  himself  up  to  his  full  height — a  splendid 
figure  as  he  stood  there— shook  his  head  decidedly,  turned 
on  his  heel  and  walked  swiftly  away,  while  the  other 
two,  a  little  less  jolly,  went  in,  and  soon  came  out  fur- 
tively wiping  their  mouths. 

That  is  the  effect.  Honest,  self-respecting  young 
men  are  not  going  to  adopt  sneaking  devices  to  do  an 
outlawed  act.  They  will  honor  the  law  more  than  they 
will  covet  a  drink. 

Meanwhile  all  the  country  around  will  be  under  Pro- 
hibition. The  cities  will  be  in  a  state  of  siege.  Leading 
merchants  will  find  the  purchasing  power  of  temperance 
communities.  In  ten  years  the  country  boys  will  be 
trained  to  temperance  habits  and  principles,  and  will  be 
finding  employment  in  the  cities  and  rising  rapidly  to 
places  of  ti'ust  and  influence.  In  ten  years  more  they 
will  be  leading  business  men.  Before  a  generation  is 
past  the  boys  from  the  country  will  be  among  the  chief 
men  in  the  cities.  Then  the  siege  will  end.  The  city 
will  be  captured.  Prohibition  will  prohibit.  The  laws 
against  the  liquor  traffic  will  be  enforced  as  well  as  the 
laws  against  all  other  crimes — with  some  failures  and  eva- 
sions, but  with  a  vast  sum  of  good,  and  doing  more  for  the 
city's  peace  and  protection  than  all  other  laws  combined. 

Prohibitory  laws  will  prohibit  at  once  where  immediate 
Prohibition  is  possible,  and  where  complete  Prohibition 
cannot  be  at  once  secured,  these  same  laws  will  operate 
as  a  most  effective  restriction,  continually  tightening 
toward  absolute  Prohibition. 


154  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

If  it  is  objected  that  tliese  laws  will  be  a  dead  letter  ir. 
the  interval  before  tinal  enforcement,  we  answer  that 
they  will  not  be  dead  with  live,  honest  officers  to  enforce 
them,  any  more  than  the  Union  armies  were  dead  when 
it  took  them  four  years  to  put  down  secession  ;  and  the 
educational  effect  was  far  better  than  if  secession  had 
been  ''regulated"  by  any  process  during  those  four 
years,  in  the  hope  that  by  tolerating  it  awhile  the  nation 
would  be  made  ready  for  its  "ultimate"  suppression. 
In  general,  the  way  to  do  a  thing  ultimately  is  to  begin 
doing  it  immediately. 

Those  who  urge  so  earnestly  that  it  is  folly  to  pass  a 
law  till  public  opinion  is  educated  up  to  it,  forget  the 
power  of 

LAW    AS    AN    EDUCATOR. 

A  gentleman,  waiting  in  a  city  drug-store  for  a  pre- 
scription one  Sunday,  overheard  the  following  conversa- 
tion through  the  telephone  :  "  Can  you  give  mo 

Blank's  drug-store?  Say,  Sam,  can't  you  come  over  ? 
What  are  you  doing  ?  Well,  don't  you  do  it  !  It's 
against  tlie  law  !  Do  you  hear  ?  Well,  there's  a  law 
against  it  !  You're  liable  to  be  pulled  for  it  !  Never 
inind  what  he  says  !  You  may  get  yourself  and  the  firm 
into  trouble.  Do  you  understand  ?  You  don't  know 
but  he's  come  just  on  purpose  to  get  you  into  a  scrape. 
AVell,  you  quit  !  Tell  him  you  won't  do  it,  and  send 
him  off.  Now  I  know  what  I'm  talking  about.  I'll 
stop  when  I  come  down  in  a  few  minutes.  Now  bo  sure 
and  let  that  alone  I'' 

Then  to  the  listener  he  said,  "  He's  a  young  fellow  who 
has  just  come  here  and  don't  know  the  law  against  sell- 
ing liquor  on  Sunday.     A  man  is  trying  to  get  him  to 


THE   TRUE    RESTRICTION.  155 

put  up  some  whiskey  for  him,  and  somebody  must  put 
him  on  his  guard." 

We  often  speak  of  Sunday  laws  as  ''  inoperative,"  *'  a 
dead  letter,"  etc.  Yet  here  was  one,  with  no  official  to 
enforce  it,  forming  opinion  across  the  city  through  a 
telephone.  It  is  a  fact  that  a  great  part  of  the  public  idea 
of  right  and  wrong  depends  upon  what  is  legal  or  illegal. 
Had  there  been  no  law  on  the  subject,  I  can  imagine 
either  of  those  young  men  selling  whatever  spirits  were 
called  for,  and  saying  to  any  remonstrance,  **  Why  not  ? 
Tiiere's  no  law  against  it  that  I  know  of — "  nay,  even 
adding,  *'  We  have  to  furnish  what  customers  call  for." 
The  whole  burden  of  obligation  would  have  been  shifted 
to  the  other  side.  Now,  it  is  no  small  gain  that  the 
young,  inexperienced,  and  thoughtless  should  have  set  up 
before  them  a  plain  bar  of  statutory  provision  framed  by 
legislators  who  are  presumed  to  be  thoughtful  men,  care- 
ful of  the  morals  of  the  community. 

Lecturing  in  every  school-house  on  the  farmer's  right 
to  his  land  and  crops,  and  the  injustice  of  having  his 
growing  grain  trampled  by  hunters  and  dogs,  would  not 
do  one-half  as  much  to  form  public  opinion  as  the  law 
which  allows  him  to  tack  a  shingle  to  a  tree  to  warn  off 
trespassers,  and  to  prosecute  all  who  disregard  it.  Boys 
and  idlers  reason  about  it,  ^'  What  do  they  have  such  a 
law  for?"  *' Why,  suppose  you  had  a  nice  field  of 
wheat  or  corn  that  you'd  worked  hard  for.  How'd  you 
like  to  have  it  all  tracked  and  trampled  to  let  some  fel- 
low get  a  few  birds?"  '^  Well,  I  suppose  it's  fair 
enough.  You  can't  blame  a  man  for  protecting  his 
land."  That  law  is  educating  every  boy  and  man  in  the 
community.  It  carries  the  accumulated  sense  of  right  of 
all  landholders  to  every  passer-by  in  a  tangible  form. 


150  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

Take  away  that  law,  and  the  hunter  with  his  dogs  and 
gun  says  :  '^  Who's  going  to  hinder  me,  I'd  like  to 
know  ?"  and  he  is  bold  from  the  sense  of  the 

TACIT    SANCTION 

of  the  community.  Take  away  the  law  against  any 
practice,  and  the  average  judgment  of  the  community  is 
that  '^  there  is  no  harm  in  it."  Law  calls  attention  to 
the  matter,  forces  all  concerned  to  think  about  it,  and  if 
there  is  evil  in  it,  forces  the  public  conscience  to  recog- 
nize it.  That  is  a  gain.  Then,  if  the  law  effectually 
abates,  or  even  reduces  an  evil,  those  who  did  not  at 
first  approve  it  come  to  do  so,  aa  the  gain  and  improve- 
ment are  forced  upon  the  public  attention. 

All  this  is  true  of  the  liquor  traffic.  It  is  too  often 
viewed  as  a  final  settlement  of  the  question  to  say  that 
no  law  can  be  enforced  which  is  not  sustained  by  public 
sentiment,  and  it.  is  forgotten  that  a  law  which  has  a  just 
basis  is 

A  MIGHTY  FORMER  OF  PUBLIC  SENTIMENT. 

Hon.  Kobert  C.  Pitman,  LL.D.,  Associate  Justice  of 
the  Superior  Court  of  Massachusetts,  says  : 

"  Government,  in  the  discharge  of  its  proper  duties,  shoald  not 
only  frame  its  laws  so  as  (to  quote  Mr.  Gladstone)  '  to  make  it  as 
hard  as  possible  for  a  man  to  go  wrong,  and  us  easy  as  possible  for  a 
man  to  go  right,'  but  it  is  bound  to  set  before  him  a  true  ethical 
standard.  .  .  .  When  the  State  writes  '  Criminal '  over  the 
doorway  of  the  most  elegant  drinking- saloons,  as  well  as  over  the 
lowest  grog-shops  ;  when  it  places  at  the  bar  of  justice  the  tempter 
by  the  side  of  his  victim,  and  when  it  stamps  every  package  of  liquor 
as  a  dangerous  beverage,  meriting  destruction  as  a  public  nuisance, 
it  has  done  much  to  warn  the  young  and  unwary,  and  to  turn  their 
feet  aside  from  the  downward  path.  " 


Tin:  TurK  RKSTHicTioy.  157 

This  restriction  by  absolute  prohibitory  law  will  make 
all  partial  restrictions  easier.     Consider 

1.  Sunday  Closing. — This  is  the  great  contest  in  Cin- 
cinnati at  this  time  of  writing.  The  difficulty  is  that 
there  is  a  traffic  which  is  legal  six  days  in  the  week.  The 
vast  stocks  of  liquor  on  hand  are  legal  property.  The 
proprietors  and  bartenders  are  doing  a  legal  business. 
They  have  a  host  of  regular  customers  whose  appetite 
does  not  shut  down  on  Saturday  night,  and  who  have 
more  leisure  and  more  money  on  Sunday  than  on  any 
other  day:  The  Western  Broker'  (liquor  paper),  of  Chi- 
cago, thus  graphically  describes  the  situation  : 

"  The  saloons  were  closed  in  Duluth  Sunday,  the  16th,  for  the  first 
time,  and  were  kept  relentlessly  shut  until  12  o'clock  Monday  morn- 
ing. Do  the  people  who  never  took  a  drink  in  their  lives  ever  pause 
to  think  what  such  a  statement  as  this  means  ?  Here  on  the  sidewalk 
are  torpid  stomachs  craving  for  the  invigorating  cocktail,  unstrung 
nerves  that  just  one  more  whiskey  would  put  in  perfect  tune,  and 
aching  brains  that  think  of  nothing  but  brandy  and  soda  ;  in  the 
saloon  are  barrels  and  bottles  of  aqua  vitae,  and,  tantalizing  thought ! 
only  a  door  prevents  their  use.  A  similar  situation  has  been  depicted 
by  Coleridge  in  that  passage  in  the  '  Ancient  Mariner,'  where  he  uses 
the  famous,  vivid  lines  :  *  Water,  water  everywhere,  but  not  a  drop 
to  drink.'     Just  substitute  whiskey  for  water,  and  then  you  have  it." 

The  peculiar  hardship  is,  that  the  whiskey  is  in  there^  ^ 
^'  with  nothing  but  a  door  between. "  The  temptation  to 
violate  the  law  is  tremendous.  Determined  officers  can 
stop  the  open  sale,  but  the  "  side-door  sale"  is  a  more 
difficult  matter,  especially  when — as  is  often  the  case — 
the  Saloon-keeper's  family-rooms  open  into  the  saloon, 
and  the  only  thing  visible  is  that  he  receives  a  large 
number  of  callers  that  day.  But  outlaw  the  whole  tra^f- 
fie,  make  those  liquors  cease  to  be  property,  make  them 
liable  to  be  confiscated  wherever  found,  enact  a  *'  search 


158  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

and  seizure  clause."  Then  those  great  stocks  of  liquor 
will  disappear.  There  will  be  no  vast  capital  and  no  army 
of  dealers  to  fight  your  Sunday-closing  law.  If  men 
are  found  drunk  and  traced  to  a  certain  place,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  prove  that  the  liquor  was  sold  to  them  there, 
nor  that  the  owner  kept  his  saloon  open  that  day.  The 
offence  is  in  having  a  saloon  at  all.  The  police  can  search 
the  premises  and  seize  the  liquors  for  evidence  of  that, 
and  abate  the  whole  business  as  a  nuisance.  With  all 
we  hear  of  lax  enforcement  of  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  we 
do  not  hear  of  any  carnival  of  Sunday  selling.  The 
chief  facilities  for  selling  liquor  on  Sunday  are  removed 
by  outlawing  the  liquor  traffic  on  all  days.  This  is  to 
stop  the  worst  disorder,  and  to  stop  the  heaviest  drain 
upon  the  resources  of  the  wage-workers,  as  the  liquor 
men  declare  their  Sunday  sales  are  twice  those  of  any 
other  day. 

2.  Take  Local  Option. — Here  is  a  community  with  so 
strong  a  Prohibition  sentiment  that  they  can  close  tiieir 
own  saloons.  Near  by  is  another  town  with  so  strong  an 
anti-Prohibition  sentiment  that  the  enforcement  of  Pro- 
hibition is  very  difficult.  Under  Local  Option  what 
happens  ?  Why,  men  go  from  the  town  which  has  closed 
the  saloons,  buy  liquor  in  the  town  where  the  saloons  are 
open,  and  come  home  drunk.  Tliere  is  nobody  to  punish 
for  that  sale.  The  man  who  sold  it  had  a  legal  right  to 
sell  it)  so  long  as  the  buyers  were  not  actually  intoxicated 
on  his  premises.  The  only  thing  the  Prohibition  town 
can  do  is  to  fine  and  imprison  the  drunken  man,  which 
is  chiefly  to  punish  his  family,  and  perhaps  have  them  to 
support  at  the  expense  of  the  sober  men.  The  Prohibi- 
tion officers  cannot  touch  the  sale  in  the  non- Prohibition 
town.     But   outlaw  that  traffic  by  State  law,  and  that 


THE   TRUE   RESTRICTION.  169 

sale  can  be  followed  up,  and  the  dealer  in  the  adjoining 
town  be  made  to  smart  for  it  if  detected.  That  is  Local 
Option  with  a  lighting  chance. 

3.  Selling  to  2finors. — It  is  extremely  hard  to  prove 
this  upon  a  dealer  who  has  a  legal  right  to  sell  to  men  all 
the  time.  Some  old  toper  may  have  given  the  boy  a 
drink  out  of  his  own  glass.  But  if  no  man  has  a  right 
to  sell  to  anybody,  and  boys  are  found  to  have  been 
drinking,  it  is  not  very  difficult  to  find  where  they  got 
their  liquor  and  punish  the  offender.  The  illicit  dealers, 
as  a  rule,  become  very  shy  of  the  juvenile  class.  Num- 
bers of  parents  testify  that  *'  Kansas  is  the  grandest  place 
to  bring  up  boys"  for  this  very  reason.  Thus  the  de- 
struction of  forming  manhood  is  largely  prevented,  and 
the  '^  Harvest  of  Death"  is  stayed. 

All  partial  restrictions  are  made  easier  by  the  one 
crowning  restriction  of  Prohibition. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHO    WILL    ENFORCE    THE  LAW  ? 

**  Your  poor-houses  are  full,  and  your  courts  and  prisons  are  filled 
■with  victims  of  this  infernal  traffic,  and  your  houses  are  full  of 
sorrow,  and  the  hearts  of  your  wives  and  mothers  ;  and  yet  the  sys- 
tem is  tolerated.  Yes!  and  when  we  ask  some  men  what  is  to  be 
done  about  it,  they  tell  you,  you  can't  stop  it !  and  yet  there  is 
Bunker  Hill !  and  you  say  you  can't  stop  it — and  up  yonder  is  Lex- 
ington and  Concord,  where  your  fathers  fought  for  the  right  and  bled 
and  died— and  you  look  on  those  monuments  and  boast  of  the  hero- 
ism of  your  fathers,  and  then  tell  us  we  must  submit  to  be  taxed  and 
tortured  by  the  rum  business,  and  we  can't  stop  it !  No  !  and  yet 
your  fathers — your  patriotic  fathers — could  make  a  cup  of  tea  for  his 
Britannic  Majesty  out  of  a  whole  cargo— and  you  can't  cork  up  a  gin- 
jug  !  KaV— Father  Taylor,  "  The  Sailor  Preaclier"  in  a  temperance 
meeting  at  Charlestown,  Mass. 

A  CORRESPONDENT  of  the  Chicac^o  Standard^  tlie  lead- 
ing Baptist  journal  of  the  West,  writes  to  that  paper  as 
follows  : 

' '  Do  not  let  us  look  too  much  upon  men  in  authority  as  the  en- 
forcers of  the  law.  It  belongs  to  the  citizen  to  see  that  the  laws  are 
enforced.  We  are  a  republic.  Every  citizen  is  a  part  of  the  police- 
power  for  enforcing  the  law.  Upon  citizens,  male  or  female,  rests 
the  enforcement  of  our  State  laws." 

The  liquor  laws  of  Illinois  to  which  he  refers  forbid  the 
**  keeping  a  disorderly  house,"  ''  selling  to  minors,  per- 
sons intoxicated,  or  in  the  habit  of  getting  intoxicated,*" 
etc.  The  writer  we  have  quoted  holds  that  these  laws, 
properly  enforced,  would  be  almost  equivalent  to  Pro- 
hibition, and  that  the  enforcement  belongs  to  the  citizen. 


AVUO    WILL   ENFORCE   THE    LAW?  161 

He  has  put  a  widespread  opinion  into  admirable  state- 
ment. It  is  clear,  definite,  unfaltering,  uncompromis- 
ing. Such  a  statement,  right  or  wrong,  is  always  an  ul- 
timate gain  to  the  cause  of  truth. 

But  when  we  come  to  ask,  Is  it  true  ?  three  decided 
objections  arise  : 

1.  It  is  impracticable. 

Let  us  apply  it  to  the  very  laws  in  question,  and  see 
what  headway  "  the  citizen,"  '*  male  or  female,"  would 
be  likely  to  make  in  enforcing  them.  Enforcement  of 
law  includes  the  detection,  the  arrest,  and  the  punishment 
of  its  violators.  How  much  can  the  citizen  do  to  detect 
illegal  selling  ?  I  have  seen  two  boys  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  pass  me  and  go  into  a  saloon  with  laugh  and 
bravado.  If  I  had  followed  tliem,  what  could  I  have 
done  ?  No  liquor  would  have  been  sold  to  them  while 
I  was  there,  and  means  would  speedily  have  been  taken 
to  make  it  too  hot  for  a  recognized  temperance  man  to 
remain.  An  unrecognized  citizen  who  was  merely  seeking 
evidence,  would  soon  be  '*  spotted,"  and  hustled  out  in 
some  kind  of  disagreeable  row  that  would  threaten  not 
only  bodily  injury,  but  a  stain  upon  his  name.  A  de- 
tective could  show  his  badge,  and  back  it  up,  if  need  be, 
with  a  revolver.  The  majesty  of  law  w^ould  be  recog- 
nized as  his  shield.  The  ^'citizen"  would  be  looked 
upon  as  only  a  vile  **  informer,"  for  whom  nothing  was 
too  bad. 

Add  to  this  that  the  ordinary  upright  citizen  has  too 
much  else  to  do.  The  best  man  is  the  busiest  man.  All 
his  feelings  and  habits  of  life,  too,  make  it  practically 
impossible  for  him  to  linger  in  dens  of  vice  and  shame. 
If  he  were  to  try  it,  he  would  be  so  plainly  ill  at  ease 
that  he  might  as  well  wear  a  placard,  saying,  "  This  is 


162  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

a  Temperance  Man."  Then  liis  ignorance  of  the  tricks 
and  devices  of  the  criminal  class  would  make  him  a  child 
in  their  hands,  as  the  novice  always  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  professional.  But  when  we  extend  the  "  citizen's" 
action  to  ''  male  or  female,"  the  supposition  becomes  too 
wildly  impossible.  Women  have  braved  the  physical 
and  moral  filth  of  the  saloon  for  moral  influence,  though, 
even  then,  with  very  limited  success.  The  Crnsade,  as 
an  appeal  to  saloon-keepers,  collapsed  in  the  nature  of 
things,  though  as  an  appeal  to  God  its  prayers  are  fast 
fulfilling.  But  woman  in  the  saloon  to  enforce  the  laws 
against  the  proprietor,  would  be  like  woman  entering  a 
tiger's  den  to  put  a  stop  to  his  carnivorous  habits.  Even 
when  her  husband  comes  home  drunk  from  the  saloon 
and  beats  her,  and  smashes  their  little  stock  of  crockery 
and  furniture,  she  cannot  ordinarily  claim  the  damages 
the  law  allows,  unless  her  liusband  will  go  on  the  stand 
and  swear  against  the  man  who  sold  him  the  drink,  with 
the  knowledge  that  no  saloon-keeper  in  that  city  will 
ever  sell  him  another  drink.  Experience  proves  that 
the  drinking  man  cannot  be  prevailed  on  to  give  such 
testimony  one  time  in  ten  thousand.  The  hands* of  the 
individual  citizen  are  tied  from  any  effectual  detection 
of  crime. 

Tlie  case  is  even  worse  with  the  arrest  and  punishment 
of  criminals.  If  I  see  men  engaged  in  manifest  gam- 
bling in  another  man's  parlor — see  the  cards  played,  and 
the  heaped-up  gold  and  silver  appropriated  by  the  win- 
ner— I  cannot  enter  to  arrest  the  proprietor  or  the  play- 
ers. By  crossing  the  threshold  I  should  make  myself  a 
trespasser  and  put  myself  in  the  wrong,  instead  of  right- 
ing the  wrong  I  had  witnessed. 

If  I  see  the  door  of  a  saloon  ajar  on  Sunday,  can  1  go 


WHO    WILL    ENFORCE   THE    LAW  ?  163 

in,  arrest  the  proprietor,  drag  him  to  the  police-station 
and  club  him  into  submission  if  he  resists  ?  Can  I  bring 
him  to  trial  before  me,  and  line  him  or  send  him  to  the 
workhonse  ?  I  am  absolutely  estopped  from  all  this. 
The  utmost  I  can  do  is  to  call  a  policeirum's  attention  to 
that  open  door,  and,  if  he  arrests  the  proprietor,  appear 
as  a  witness  against  him.  If  the  police  judge  sets  aside 
my  evidence,  holding  that  the  proprietor  had  simply 
gone  in  to  black  his  shoes,  I  cannot  overrule  his  decision 
and  inflict  a 'penalty.  So  far  from  its  being  true,  that 
'^  upon  the  citizens,  male  or  female,  rests  the  enforce- 
ment of  our  State  laws,"  **  the  citizens,  male  or  female,'  * 
are  absohitely  forbidden  to  execute  our  laws,  and  would  lay 
themselves  liable  to  prosecution  if  they  shonld  attempt  it. 

2.  The  existence  of  executive  oflScers  is  against  this 
theory  of  citizen  enforcement. 

A  nurse,  worried  by  the  care  of  a  fretful  child,  ex- 
claimed, "  People  ought  to  take  care  of  their  own  chil- 
dren !"  '^  In  that  case,"  replied  her  mistress,  ^' what 
should  I  want  of  you  ?"  If  '^  the  citizens,  male  or  fe- 
male," have  to  enforce  their  own  laws,  what  do  they 
want  of  this  great  army  of  paid  officials  ?  The  sublimity 
of  insolence  has  never  been  so  perfectly  attained  as  by 
this  claim  of  men  appointed,  paid  and  sworn  to  do  a  cer- 
tain work,  that  it  belongs  to  the  people  who  pay  them 
to  do  the  work  themselves  if  they  want  it  done  !  There 
is  only  one  thing  more  amazing,  and  that  is,  that  they 
have  been  able  to  get  their  claim  accepted  by  the  citizens, 
who  are  at  once  defrauded  and  defied  ;  and  that  minis- 
ters, philanthropists,  and  editors  should  become  the 
mouth-pieces  of  recreant  officers,  to  instruct  the  people 
that  these  men  are  not  to  be  expected  to  do  what  they 
are  sworn  and  paid  to  do  I 


164  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

Thus  the  executive  usurps  the  legislative  function, 
and  the  police  department  becomes  a  Court  of  Appeals 
to  set  aside  such  laws  as  it  pleases,  without  needing  any 
legal  knowledge  or  study  as  qualification  for  the  work. 
Members  of  the  Legislature  say  to  the  people,  ''  We 
have  given  you  a  good  law.  Now,  see  that  you  enforce 
it."  A  year  passes.  The  law  is  defiantly  violated  be- 
fore the  very  eyes  of  the  officers  of  the  law.  The  people 
form  *^  law  and  order  leagues,"  which  cannot  do  the  en- 
forcing, but  might  be  termed  ''  punching-up  societies," 
to  get  the  men  to  do  the  work  who  ought  to  do  it — and 
they  punch  in  vain.  Then  the  delinquent  officials  calm- 
ly say,  *'  This  law  is  a  dead  letter.  A  law  which  is  not 
enforced  is  demoralizing  to  the  public  conscience,  and 
should,  therefore,  be  repealed  !" 

This  is  the  very  essence  of  kingship,  when  the  execu- 
tive dispenses  at  pleasure  with  the  enactments  of  the 
legislative  power.  Richard  the  Lion-IIearted  or  Henry 
the  Eighth  never  attempte'd  anything  more.  For  at- 
tempting so  much,  Charles  the  First  was  beheaded,  and 
James  the  Second  banished  ;  and  if  the  Prince  of  Wales 
were  to  try  it,  when  he  comes  to  the  throne,  he  would 
make  a  short  and  everlasting  end  of  royalty  in  England. 
But  we,  after  having  broken  the  yoke  of  George  the 
Third,  calmly  submit  to  be  braved  by  mayors,  prosecuting 
attorneys  and  chiefs  of  police,  whom  we  have  made  out 
of  nothing  to  bo  petty  kings. 

It  is  time  to  re-divide  the  functions  of  government, 
and  have  it  clearly  understood  that  the  executive  is  not 
co-ordinate  with,  but  subordinate  to  the  legislative.  The 
Legislature  has  power  to  incorporate  in  any  law  heavy 
penalties  upon  executive  officers  who  fail  to  enforce  it, 
as  has  been  done   by  the   Legislature   of  Kansas  in   the 


WHO    WILL   ENFORCE   THE    LAW  ?  166 

*Mron-clad"  prohibitory  law,  which  has  been  in  force 
for  some  four  years,  and  stands  unchallenged.  The  ex- 
ecutive has  no  review  of  legislative  measures  which  have 
once  been  duly  enacted  into  law.  General  Grant,  with 
his  clear  common-sense,  said  on  a  notable  occasion, 
**  Whether  the  law  is  good  or  bad  is  none  of  my  busi- 
ness. It  is  law,  and  I  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  enforce 
it.  If  a  law  is  bad,  to  enforce  it  vigorously  is  the  quick-  \ 
est  way  to  get  it  repealed."  In  a  word,  the  business  of 
the  executive  officer  is  simply  to  execute.  He  has  no  / 
other  reason  for  his  existence. 

3.  The  essential  principle  of  republican  government  is 
opposed  to  this  theory  of  individual  enforcement  of  law. 

The  author  we  have  quoted  says  :  '*  We  are  a  repub- 
lic. Every  citizen  is  a  part  of  the  police-power  for  en- 
forcing the  law." 

This  is  the  deadliest  argument  against  his  theory. 
Because  we  are  a  republic,  the  enforcement  of  law  does 
not  rest  upon  the  individual  citizen.  A  republic  differs 
from  a  democracy  in  being  representative.  As  truly  as 
it  can  be  said,  '*  Every  citizen  is  a  part  of  the  police- 
power,"  it  can  be  said,  Every  citizen  is  a  part  of  the 
law-making  power  of  the  nation.  But  how  do  the  peo- 
ple make  laws  in  a  republic  ?  Solely  by  their  represent- 
atives. Pure  democracy  was  seen  when  all  the  people 
{demos)  of  Athens  crowded  into  the  Agora,  and  by  the 
show  of  hands  enacted  laws.  We  ^ave  repudiated  that 
system  for  sufficient  reasons.  In  the  long  run,  better 
laws  will  be  made  by  representatives,  at  their  worst, 
than  by  a  mob  at  its  best.  Hence,  in  our  system  of 
government,  the  individual  citizen  never  votes  directly 
upon  a  law."*     The  way  **  the  people  make  the  laws," 

*  The  people  may  vote  directly  npon  a  constitutional  amendment, 


y 


166  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

is  by  voting  for  representatives  pledged  to  pass  certain 
laws,  or  believed  to  favor  them.  If  these  representatives 
break  their  pledges  and  refuse  to  pass  the  laws  they  were 
elected  to  pass,  can  the  people  crowd  into  the  halls  of 
legislation  to  make  the  laws  after  all  ?  That  would  be 
'lacobinism  in  its  wildest  form,  such  as  Napoleon  sup- 
pressed at  the  cannon's  mouth.  In  a  true  republic,  if 
the  representatives  fail  to  pass  appropriate  laws,  the 
people's  only  remedy  is  to  elect  other  representatives, 
who  will  do  what  the  people  want  done. 

The  case  of  the  enforcement  of  laws  is  precisely  the 
same.  The  whole  action  of  the  people  in  enforcing  the 
laws  is  representative,  exactly  as  in  making  them. 
Sometimes  the  people  forget  this.  An  atrocious  murder 
is  committed.  All  the  citizens  crowd  together  and  hang 
the  murderer.  That  is  direct  enforcement  of  law  by  the 
individual  citizen.  But  all  thoughtful  men  deplore  it  as 
contrary  to  the  principles  of  our  Government  and  the 
best  interests  of  society.  Direct  enforcement  of  law  by 
the  individual  citizen  is  called  mob  law,  or  lynch  law, 
and  tends  strongly  toward  barbarism.  The  whole  theory 
of  our  institutions  is  that  the  people  shall  execute  the 
laws,  exactly  as  they  make  them^  by  their  representatives. 
It  would  be  just  as  competent  for  our  legislators  to  say, 
"  If  you  want  better  laws,  come  and  make  them,"  as  for 
our  executive  officers  to  say,  '*  If  you  want  your  laws 
enforced,  go  and  enforce  thera."  If  the  representatives 
of  the  people  for  the  enforcement  of  law  fail  to  enforce 
it,  the  rpmedy  is  the  same  as  if  the  representatives  of 
the  people  for  the  enactment  of  law  fail  to  enact  it.  Put 
in  reprefeentatives  who  will.     Non-enforcement  of  law  is 

bat  that  ifas  no  foroe  aa  law,  till  their  representatives  in  the  Legisla- 
ture pass  knitable  statnten  to  carry  it  into  effect. 


WHO    WILL    ENFORCE  THE    LAW  ?  167 

not  an  argument  for  the  repeal  of  the  law,  but  for  the\ 
repeal  of  the  non-enforcing  officers.  Private  citizens  are  < 
not  called  upon  to  become  detectives  or  patrolmen,  in 
order  to  cover  the  remissness  of  the  proper  officers.  The  ' 
citizen's  business  is  not  to  dog  the  delinquent  officer,  nor 
goad  him,  nor  coax  him,  hut  to  remove  him^  and  put  in 
his  place  a  man  who  does  not  need  to  be  goaded,  coaxed, 
or  watched.  The  sharpness  of  private  interest  does  this 
infallibly.  Into  a  mill  near  inyiresidence,  the  proprietor 
walked  one  night,  and  found  his  watchman  asleep.  He 
did  not  appoint  a  subsidiary  watchman  to  keep  that  one 
awake,  nor  sit  up  niglits  to  do  it  himself.  He  paid  that 
man  off  the  next  morning  and  put  in  a  new  man  the 
next  night.  The  sleeper  will  never  watch  in  that  mill 
again.  A  little  of  this  firm  common-sense  in  government 
would  at  once  better  our  whole  Administration.  True, 
the  citizen  cannot  deal  Ihus  directly  with  appointed  offi- 
cers, but  he  can  always  strike  them  through  the  appoint- 
ing power,  which  is  elective.  It  would  be  most  whole- 
some for  every  appointing  officer  to  know  that  he  would 
be  held  strictly  accountable  both  for  the  capacity  and 
the  integrity  of  his  appointees. 

Especially  does  it  become  teachers  of  public  morality 
to  lay  responsibility  where  it  belongs,  and  to  teach  that 
the  enforcement  of  law  belongs  to  the  officers  of  the 
law,  and  that  when  they  are  false  to  their  trust  and  their 
oaths,  they  become  chief  of  violators  and  worst  of 
criminals,  and  should  be  pursued  by  the  withering  de- 
nunciations of  platform,  pulpit,  and  press,  and  hurled 
from  power  by  the  suffrages  of  all  honest  men. 

It  should  be  clearly  borne  in  mind  that  the  prospect  of 
enforcement  is  not  increased  by  weakening  the  law.  If 
Chicago  had  made  her  laws  so  mild  that  the  dynamite 


168  rCOXOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

murderers  could  not  have  been  punished,  unless  some 
one  had  seen  the  man  throw  the  bomb,  and  had  exam- 
ined it  beforehand,  so  that  he  could  swear  that  it  was  an 
explosive  bomb,  and  if  the  penalty  had  been  a  $5  fine, 
would  Chicago  have  had  less  of  dynamite  since  ?  Why, 
if  that  had  been  done,  every  judge  who  sentenced  a 
criminal,  every  banker  who  refused  a  loan,  every  mer- 
chant who  dipciiarged  a  clerk,  every  officer  who  arrested 
a  vagrant,  and  every  housekeeper  who  reprimanded  a 
servant-maid  would  have  been  in  danger  of  the  deadly 
explosive.  The  law  that  could  punish  the  concocters 
and  abettors  of  murder,  and  punish  'them  with  death, 
was  a  law  that  could  be  enforced  to  some  purpose. 
Weakening  law  is  not  a  protection  against  non-enforce- 
ment. Herein  is  our  answer  to  a  different  argument, 
which  is  commonly  couched  under  the  alluring  phrase, 


Every  little  while  some  one  comes  out  with  this  as  a 
brand-new  discovery.  *'  If  you  would  only  enforce  the 
laws  we  have  we  should  do  very  well.  If  you  can't  or 
won't  enforce  the  laws  we  have,  what's  the  use  of 
clamoring  for  new  laws  ?"  Well,  it  is  said  that  an  en- 
terprising Connecticut*  man,  whose  ancestors  drove  a 
thriving  business  in  wooden  hams  and  nutmegs,  has  in- 
vented a  new  umbrella,  to  be  called  *'  the  lending  um- 
brella." It  is  made  of  brown  paper  and  willow  twigs. 
It  has  all  the  qualities  of  an  umbrella,  except  keeping 
the  rain  off.  You  lend  it  to  your  friend,  and  if  he 
comes  in  dripping  and  complaining,  you  ask,  **  If  you 
won't  use  the  ifmbrella  I  lent  you,  what's  the  use  of  my 
lending  you  another  ?"  The  laws  we  have  in  the  license 
States  **  won't  hold  water,''  as  the  lawyers  say.     Tem- 


WHO    WIM.    KXFOhCE  THK    LAW?  169 

perance  men  try  them,  spend  $200  to  get  the  saloon- 
keeper fined  $5,  and  grow  discouraged.  Tlio  law  has  all 
the  properties  of  a  temperance  law,  except  stopping  the 
sale  of  liquor.  But  that  happens  to  be  the  very  thing 
we  want  it  for. 

The  answer  to  all  this  plea  is  very  simple.  The  weaker 
the  law,  the  harder  it  is  to  enforce  it ;  the  stronger  the 
law  the  easier  it  is  to  enforce  it.  The  law  against  coun- 
terfeiting is  a  strong  law.  It  makes  the  possession  of 
counterfeit  money  in  any  quantity  a  presumption  of 
guilty  intent.  It  makes  the  poeeessioa  of  counterfeit 
-plates  and  dies  a  crime.  Premises  can  be  searched  for 
them.  They  can  be  seized  where  found  and  the  owner 
arrested,  and  the  tools  used  in  evidence  against  him. 
The  penalties  are  very  heavy.  The  offender  who  is  con- 
victed is  put  where  he  will  not  need  to  be  convicted  again 
very  soon.  Hence  violations  of  the  law  are  extremely 
few.  Now,  tone  that  law  down.  Allow  any  man  to 
hold  all  the  counterfeit  money  he  pleases.  Allow  en- 
gravers to  make  all  the  counterfeit,  plates  and  dies  they 
please,  to  advertise  them  in  the  papers,  and  have  stores 
where  they  can  sell  them  as  freely  as  chromos.  Require 
evidence  that  a  man  has  actually  passed  some  of  the 
money  before  you  can  convict  him,  and  let  counterfeiters 
be  eligible  for  the  jury.  Make  the  penalty  for  the 
offence  about  a  fortieth  part  of  what  it  will  cost  to  con- 
vict the  offender.  Then  tell  the  public,  *'  If  you  can't 
enforce  the  laws  you  have,  what  sense  is  there  in  your 
demanding  stricter  ones  ?"  The  answer  would  be,  **  So 
that  we  can  enforce  them.'*^ 

Laws  that  allow  anybody  to  manufacture  liquor,  keep 
it  in  stock,  and  to  sell  it  to  everybody  except  drunkards 
and  minors,  or  on  Sunday,  or  inside  the  imaginary  lines 


170  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

of  certain  counties  or  townships,  and  that  make  saloon- 
keepers eligible  on  the  juries  that  try  liquor  cases,  will 
always  be  too  weak  to  be  successfully  enforced.  But  a 
good  strong  law,  like  the  Murray  Law  of  Kansas,  can 
be  enforced  with  comparative  ease.  That  celebrated 
law,  after  defining*  the  duties  of  '*all  sheriffs,  deputy 
sheriffs,  constables,  marshals,  police  judges,  and  police 
officers   of  any   town  or  city,"  declares  : 

*'If  any  such  officer  shall  fail  to  comply  with  the  provisions  of 
this  section,  he  shall,  upon  conviction,  be  fined  in  any  sum  not  less 
than  one  hundred  nor  more  than  five  hundred  dollars,  and  such  con- 
viction shall  be  a  forfeiture  of  the  office  held  by  such  person  ;  and 
the  court  before  whom  such  conviction  is  had  shall,  in  addition  to 
the  imposition  of  the  fine  aforesaid,  order  and  adjudge  the  forfeiture 
of  his  said  office." 

Similarly,  the  same  law  provides  (Sec.  11) : 

"Tf  any  county  attorney  shall  fail,  neglect,  or  refuse  to  perform 
any  duty  imposed  upon  him  by  this  act,  he  shall  be  deemed  guilty 
of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  conviction  thereof  be  fined  in  any  sum 
not  less  than  one  hundred  dollars  nor  more  than  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  be  imprisoned  in  the  county  jail  not  leas  than  ten  days  nor 
more  than  ninety  days  ;  and  such  conviction  shall  operate  as  afc/rfeiture 
of  his  office,"  etc. 

J  This  is  going  to  the  root  of  things,  holding  the  officers 
of  the  law  also  amenable  to  the  law.  Public  officers  in 
Kansas  are  not  much  in  the  habit  of  telling  the  people 
that  their  laws  cannot  be  enforced.  Further  provision  is 
made  in  the  event  of  such  failure  on  the  part  of  the 
county  attorney  for  the  attorney  general  of  the  State 
to  enter  the  county,  appoint  as  many  assistants  as  nec- 
essary, see  the  law  enforced,  and  collect  the  same  feee 
which  the  county  attorney  would  do  for  like  service. 

If  Missouri,  Texas,  and  Nebraska  had  the  same  law, 
Kansas  would  soon  stamp  out  the  last  remnants  of  the 
liquor  traffic.     We  can  enforce  the  laws  we  have  when 

.   we  have  the  laws  we  ought  to  have. 

♦  Laws  of  Kansas,  1885,  Chapter  CXLIX.,  Sec.  7. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MAINK. 

"  The  people  of  Maine  are  iudustrious  and  provident.  Wise 
laws  have  aided  them.  They  arc  sober,  earnest,  and  thrifty.  In- 
temperance has  steadily  decreased  in  the  State  since  the  enactment  of 
the  prohibitory  law,  until  it  can  now  be  said  with  truth  that  there  is 
no  people  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  among  whom  so  small  an 
amount  of  intoxicating  liquor  is  consumed,  as  among  the  650,000  ixu 
habitants  of  Maine." — James  G.  Blaine. 

The  celebrated  *'  Maine  Law"  was  passed  in  1851, 
now  nearly  forty  years  ago.  Has  it  been  a  success  ? 
We  will  take  first  the  testimony  of  the  late  D.  R.  Locke 
(Nasby),  of  the  Toledo  Blade,  who  made  a  tour  through 
the  State  of  Maine  for  the  express  purpose  of  satisfying 
himself  in  regard  to  this  matter.     He  says  :  * 

"  This  is  the  strength  of  Prohibition.  In  Portland  there  are  no 
delightful  places  fitted  up  with  expensive  furniture,  no  cut-glass 
filled  with  brilliant  liquors,  no  bars  of  mahogany  with  silver  railings, 
no  great  mirrors  on  the  walls,  no  luxurious  seats  upon  the  floor — 
nothing  of  the  sort.  Drunkenness  there  has  no  mantle  of  luxury 
thrown  over  it,  and  the  mask  of  sociality  has  been  ruthlessly  torn 
from  it.  If  you  want  to  get  drunk  in  Portland,  you  go  where  the 
material  is  for  that  purpose,  and  that  only.  You  must  go  and  find  it 
■^it  is  not  trying  to  find  you. 

**  Who  have  taken  the  place  of  these  300  rumsellers  of  thirty  years 
ago?  Bakers,  shoemakers,  tailors,  milliners,  and  people  of  that 
class.  There  are  no  houses  vacant,  and  there  is  a  better  class  of 
houses  than  ever.     The  effect  of  Prohibition  upon  the  material  jiros- 


*  "  Prohibition."     By  Petroleum  V.  Nasby,  p.  12.     National  Tern- 
perance  Publication  Society. 


1T2  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

perity  of  the  city  is  marked.  'Ihe  workingmen  own  their  own  houses, 
their  newspapers  are  better  sustained,  they  have  book-stores,  art- 
stores,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  which  a  whiskey  city  of  the  same 
population  never  did  sustain  ;  the  small  trades  are  all  flourishing, 
and,  despite  the  disadvantages  the  city  labors  under  by  reason  of  cli- 
matic and  other  conditions,  it  is  one  of  the  most  prosperous  munici- 
palities in  the  United  States.  There  was  once  $1,500,000  paid  an- 
nually for  rum.  That  money  now  goes  into  the  comforts  of  life,  and 
there  is  still  a  wide  margin  left  for  luxuries. 

"  In  the  country  towns  of  Maine  the  effect  is  still  more  marked. 
The  farmers,  when  liquor  was  out  of  sight,  did  not  want  it,  their 
children  grew  up  without  knowing  the  taste  of  the  destroyer,  and 
comfort  and  prosperity  have  everywhere  taken  the  place  of  slovenli- 
ness and  unthrift. 

"  The  best  argument  I  found  in  Maine  for  Prohibition  was  by  an 
editor  of  a  paper  in  Portland,  who  was,  for  political  reasons,  mildly 
opposed  to  it.  I  had  a  conversation  with  him  which  ran  something 
like  this  : 

* '  *  Where  were  you  bom  ?  ' 

* '  '  In  a  village  about  sixty  miles  from  Bangor. ' 

**  *  Do  you  remember  the  condition  of  things  in  your  village  prioj 
to  Prohibition  ?  ' 

*'  '  Distinctly.  There  was  a  vast  amount  of  drunkenness,  and  con- 
sequent disorder  and  poverty.' 

•'  '  What  was  the  effect  of  Prohibition  ? ' 

"  '  It  shut  up  all  the  rum-shops,  and  practically  banished  liquor 
from  the  village.  It  became  one  of  the  most  quiet  and  prosperous 
places  on  the  globe.' 

"  '  How  long  did  you  live  in  the  village  after  Prohibition  ?  * 

"  '  Eleven  years,  or  until  I  was  twenty-one  years  of  age.' 

*"Then?' 

**  *  Then  I  went  to  Bangor.' 

*  *  *  Do  you  drink  now  ?  ' 

"  '  I  have  never  tasted  a  drop  of  liquor  in  my  life.' 

♦*  '  Why  ?  ' 

'  *  *  Up  to  the  age  of  twenty-one  I  never  saw  it,  and  after  that  I  did 
not  care  to  take  on  the  habit.' 

'*  That  is  all  there  is  in  it.  If  the  boys  of  the  country  are  not  ex- 
posed to  the  infernalisra,  the  men  are  very  sure  not  to  be.  This  man 
and  his  schoolmates  were  saved  from  rum  by  the  fact  that  they  could 
not  get  it  until  they  were  old  enough  to  know  better.     Few  men  are 


MAIXK.  i;.". 

drunkards  who  know  not  the  poison  till  after  they  are  twenty-one. 
It  is  the  youth  that  the  whiskey  and  beer  men  want. 

"  Thousands  upon  thousands  of  men  from  other  States  who  are 
slaves  to  the  drink  habit,  and  so  securely  held  by  it  that  they  cannot 
of  their  own  power  resist,  go  to  Maine  that  they  may  live  where  it  is 
impossible  to  procure  the  stuff  which  makes  the  meat  it  feeds  on. 
While  liquor  can  be  procured  anywhere  in  Maine,  if  one  chooses  to 
go  to  the  trouble  and  expense  necessary,  its  procurement  is  so  hedged 
about  with  difficulty  that  the  victim  who  really  desires  to  free  him- 
self of  his  appetite  generally  succeeds.  The  help  that  Prohibition 
gives  him  is  enough  to  turn  the  scale,  and  he  is  enabled  to  let  it  alone 
till  his  restored  stomach  and  new  blood  give  him  will-power  enough 
to  do  something  for  himself.  It  makes  a  difference  with  the  man 
suffering  for  want  of  liquor  whether  he  cnn  step  into  a  bar-room  on 
every  corner  and  take  the  one  drink  for  present  relief,  or  whether  he 
has  to  go  to  as  much  trouble  as  would  pay  off  a  mortgage  on  a  farm 
to  get  it.  Hundreds  go  to  Maine  for  a  month  or  two  and  come  back 
rejoicing  in  the  thought  that  they  are  free.  That  they  do  not  keep 
free  is  owing  to  the  unfortunate  fact  that  they  come  back  to  places 
where  liquor  is  free,  and  they  fall." 

Undoabtedly  there  is  another  side  to  this  picture. 
The  New  York  World  in   a   Lewiston,   Me.,  special 
despatch  says  : 

"  In  the  Maine  cities  a  political  pull  is  the  secret  of  succesr}  in  the 
rum  business.  Lewiston's  story  is  the  story  of  them  all.  One  of  the 
richest  men  in  town  is  Henry  Hines.  He  is  a  wholesale  and  retail 
liquor- dealer,  and  makes  no  bones  of  it.  He  owns  three  or  four  re- 
tail shops.  They  are  raided  only  once  in  a  great  while,  and  then  by 
his  consent.  He  controls  200  votes  and  that  is  the  secret  of  it.  Ho 
gets  the  best  of  the  other  dealers  because  the  officers  don't  dare  to 
arrest  him.  He  gives  the  Democratic  Committee  a  large  contribution 
in  cash,  but  votes  his  men  on  the  Republican  side.  In  the  rural  re- 
gions the  law  is  as  successfully  enforced  as  the  law  against  stealing 
or  any  other  crime. " 

Undoubtedly  the  Liquor  League  is  working  to  secure 
Resubmission  and  Repeal  in  Maine,  as  they  have  done  in 
Rhode  Island.  The  prize  is  an  inviting  one.  To  be 
able  to  say,  ^'  Maine,  after  forty  years'  trial,  lias  repealed 


174  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

Prohibition,"  would  be  an  argument  to  discourage  many 
of  its  firmest  friends,  and  to  give  hope  and  energy  to  all 
its  enemies.  The  first  step  to  repeal  is  non-enforcement. 
For  that  the  liquor  traffic  is  now  working.  They  can 
afford  to  pay  heavy  fines.  They  can  afford  to  Jiave 
great  stocks  of  liquor  confiscated.  If  they  can  sell 
enough  to  produce  manifest  drunkenness  and  disorder, 
they  can  lead  thousands  to  believe  that  the  law  is  useless. 
Then  they  can  spend  great  sums  to  trumpet  all  these  in- 
cidents through  the  press,  and  one  fact  repeated  a  thou- 
sand times  comes  to  seem  to  the  people  a  thousand  facts. 
They  can  hold  up  the  example  of  High-License  States, 
and  appeal  to  human  cupidity  by  most  plausible  argu- 
ments. 

They  say,  '^  You  see  the  liquor  is  sold  and  will  be. 
No  law  can  stop  it.  But  if  you  would  put  a  High  Li- 
cense on  every  saloon,  you  might  raise  millions  of  money 
which  would  reduce  your  taxes."  Average  human  na- 
ture has  not  yet  got  far  enough  from  barbarism  to  pay 
taxes  cheerfully.  Every  man  wishes  to  shift  the  burdens 
of  government  upon  somebody  else.  If  you  can  really 
persuade  him  that  he  is  shifting  them  upon  the  liquor 
traffic,  he  feels  a  degree  of  complacency  that  is  as  much 
like  virtue  as  a  counterfeit  dollar  is  like  the  genuine.  To 
put  money  into  his  pocket,  and  at  the  same  time  persuade 
himself  that  he  is  doing  a  public  service,  is  an  exquisite 
satisfaction.  If  you  attempt  to  show  him  that  the  liquor 
traffic  increases  taxes  more  than  the  license  reduces  them, 
he  answers,  ''  But  it  is  sold  any  way.  It  increases  the 
taxes  any  way."  This  is  the  state  of  mind  the  liquor 
traffic  is  moving  earth  and — another  region — to  produce 
in  the  State  of  Maine. 

Will  it  succeed  ?     There  are  some  possibilities  that  it 


MAINE.  176 

may.  There  are  conscienceless  politicians  of  national 
ambition.  While  the  temperance  vote  is  strongest  in 
Maine,  the  liquor  vote  controls  both  the  great  national 
parties.  To  please  the  liquor  men  is  to  widen  the  out- 
look of  ambition  beyond  the  State  lines  into  the  national 
field.  There  are  also  politicians  who  are  susceptible  to 
downright  bribery,  and  the  liquor  men  know  how  to 
place  money  **  where  it  will  do  the  most  (Satanic)  good." 
The  only  remedy  is  for  the  people  of  every  city  and 
town  in  Maine  to  settle  it  that  every  official  who  does 
not  enforce  the  law  shall  be  politically  dead  in  Maine. 
That  will  give  a  quietus  to  villainous  ambition,  for  the 
man  who  is  dead  in  his  own  State  cannot  be  a  live  quan- 
tity in  the  nation. 

For  officers  who  really  mean  to  fight  the  liquor  traffic, 
the  only  effectual  weapon  is  imprisonment  of  every 
offender,  wherever  the  law  allows  it.  Now  that  the 
national  liquor  power  is  concentrating  npon  you,  they 
will  laugh  at  any  fines  and  confiscations  you  can  inflict. 
What  is  $100  or  $500  to  a  trade  that  is  raking  in  every 
year  its  thousand  millions  ?  Tliey  will  pay  the  offender's 
fine,  and  start  him  again  with  a  new  stock  of  liquors, 
and  charge  it  to  current  expenses.  But  when  you  im- 
prison a  man,  that  has  to  be  paid  in  propria  persona. 
The  National  Liquor-Dealers'  Protective  Association 
does  not  wear  the  stripes  or  go  to  the  stone  pile.  It 
would  take  a  high  conscientiousness  and  a  good  cause  to 
lead  individuals  to  bear  this  to  advance  a  national  move- 
ment, and  saloon-keepers  have  not  been  conspicuous  as 
martyrs.  Let  the  officials  of  Maine  inflict  imprisonment 
with  an  unsparing  hand  for  every  liquor  offence  that  will 
bear  it.  Let  the  people  of  Maine  demand  that  this  shall 
be  done,  and  fling  out  of  office  every  official  who  will 


176  EcoxoMirs  of  I'uoiiiTUTrox. 

not  do  it.  Three  months  of  this  discipline  will  silence 
all  the  boastful  stories  about  ^^  getting  all  the  liquor  you 
want  in  Maine." 

In  this  the  farmers  must  co-operate.  The  towns  and 
cities  must  not  be  left  to  fight  alone.  Every  non-en- 
forcing officer  of  any  city  who  aspires  to  a  State  office 
must  be  squarely  defeated  by  the  rural  vote.  Let  every 
city  officer  know  that  if  he  pleases  the  liquor  men  in  his 
city  he  can  never  get  an  office  outside  of  his  city.  If  the 
law  is  not  strong  enough  at  any  point,  let  the  rural  vote 
rise  like  the  waves  of  a  great  sea,  concentrating  on  one 
object,  to  send  men  to  the  Legislature  who  will  make 
that  law  stronger.  How  much  it  is  to  have  boys  grow 
up  without  knowing  the  taste  of  liquor,  and  able  to  say  ; 
**  Up  to  the  age  of  twenty- one  I  never  saw  it,  and  after 
that  I  did  not  care  to  take  on  the  habit !" 

Admit,  if  you  will,  all  that  is  claimed  about  drunken- 
ness in  Bangor,  how  much  it  is  for  boys  to  grow  up  in 
ten  thousand  rural  homes  hating  and  despising  drunken- 
ness, and  with  not  the  slightest  craving  for  the  liquor 
which  creates  it  I 

We  are  prepared  to  believe  that  the  picture  could  not 
now  be  made  as  favorable  in  Portland,  Lewiston,  Au- 
gusta, and  Bangor  as  when  Mr.  Locke  wrote.  We  be- 
lieve the  decline  to  be  the  result  of  a  great  conspiracy  of 
the  national  rum  power  working  with  the  aid  of  officials 
who  can  be  influenced  by  pecuniary  rewards  or  political 
advantage.  We  believe  that  to  defeat  this  conspiracy 
the  good  and  true  yeomanry  of  Maine  must  arise  to  a 
new  crusade  to  restore  their  law  to  energy  and  power, 
and,  if  anywhere  it  is  weak,  to  bring  the  law  up  to  the 
need  of  the  times. 

But,  admitting  all  this,  we  still  have  evidence  that  the 


MAINE.  177 

Maine  Law  is  accomplishing  incalculable  good,  and  that 
its  failure  would  be  a- vast  misfortune  to  the  State. 

Ten  years  ago  Governor  Dingley,  in  a  mepsage  to  the 
Legislature,  v/rote  :  '^  Tlie  great  improvement  in  the 
drinking  habits  of  the  people  of  this  State,  in  the  past 
thirty  or  forty  years,  is  so  evident  that  no  man  who  has 
observed  the  fact  can  deny  it.  Secret  drinking  has  not 
taken  the  place  of  open  drinking." 

A  year  later  Governor  Perham  stated  :  **  Probably 
less  liquors  are  drunk  in  Maine  than  in  any  other  place 
of  equal  size  in  this  country,  perhaps  in  the  civilized 
world.'' 

Hon.  William  P.  Frye,  ex- Attorney  General  of  Maine, 
declared  :  "  I  do  unhesitatingly  aflirm  that  the  consump- 
tion of  intoxicating  liquor  in  Maine  is,  to-day,  not  one- 
fourth  as  great  as  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  In  the  coun- 
try portions  of  the  Sj:ate,  where  there  stood  at  every  four 
corners  a  grocery  or  a  tavern,  and  within  a  circuit  of  two 
miles  from  it  were  unpainted  houses,  broken  windows, 
neglected  farms,  poor  school-houses,  broken  hearts,  and 
ruined  homes,  the  law  has  banished  almost  every  grocery 
and  tavern,  and  introduced  peace,  plenty,  and  happiness." 

These  are  the  words  of  Judge  Davis,  of  the  Supreme 
Court  :  ''  The  Maine  Law,  even  now,  is  enforced  far 
more  than  the  license  laws  ever  were. " 

General  Dyer,  Inspector  General  of  the  State  Militia, 
Bangor,  asserts  :  "  The  law  has  materially  improved  the 
moral  and  social  condition  of  the  people,  reducing  crime 
and  poverty.'' 

The  following  is  the  resolution  passed  by  the  Republi- 
can Convention  held  June,  1882,  the  largest  ever  held  in 
Maine  by  any  party  : 

"  We  refer  with  confidence  and  pride  to  the  general  record  of  the 


178  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

Bepnblican  Party  in  siipport  of  the  policy  of  prohibiting  the  traffic 
in  intoxicating  liquors,  the  wisdom  and  efficiency  of  which  legisla- 
tion, in  promoting  the  moral  and  material  interests  of  Maine,  have 
been  demonstrated  in  the  practical  annihilation  of  that  traffic  in  a 
large  portion  of  the  State  ;  and  we  favor  such  legislation  and  such 
enforcement  of  law  as  will  secure  to  every  portion  of  our  territory 
freedom  from  that  traffic.  We  further  recommend  the  submission  to 
the  people  of  a  Constitutional  Prohibitory  Amendment." 

In  the  year  1884  a  Prohibitory  Amendment  was 
added  to  the  Constitution  of  the  State  by  a  majority  of 
more  than  3  to  1 — 70,783  voting  for  the  Amendment, 
and  only  23,811  against  it,  giving  most  conchisively  the 
popular  verdict  in  its  favor  after  thirty  years'  experience- 

The  aggregate  receipts  of  Internal  Revenue — which 
are  chiefly  for  liquor  and  tobacco — decreased  in  Maine 
from  $514,636.28 in  1863  to $50,286.45 in  1887.*  Since 
that  time  this  poorly-paying  State  has  been  consolidated 
with  the  District  of  New  Hampshire,  and  the  name  of 
Maine  has  disappeared  from  the  Internal  Revenue  list. 

But,  some  one  will  ask,  '^  Plave  not  the  Internal  Reve- 
nue receipts  for  the  whole  country  decreased  also  in  the 
same  proportion  ?"  By  reference  to  the  same  official 
table,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  total  receipts  of  Internal 
Revenue  for  the  whole  nation  have  inereased  from  $41,- 
003,192.93  in  1863  to  $118,837,301.06  in  1887.  Evi- 
dently some  special  cause  has  been  at  work  in  Prohibi- 
tion Maine,  and  that  cause  would  seem  to  be  Prohibi- 
tion. 

There  is  not  now  a  distillery  or  brewery  in  the  wli9Je 
State.  How  much  this  means  is  not  always  considered. 
It  means  that  there  is  not  a  citizen  of  Maine  who  has 
capital  in  liquor  production  within  the  State,  or  large 


•  Annual  Report  of  Internal  Revenue  for  18H9,  pp.  200-293. 


MAINE.  179 

stocks  of  liquor  on  hand  of  which  he  desires  to  force  the 
sale  in  the  community. 

The  following  summary  of  economic  results  for  twen- 
ty-five years  is  from  Dr.  Dorchester's  "  Liquor  Problem 
in  All  Ages,"  p.  546  : 

**  In  August,  1882,  Hon.  J.  G.  Blaine  .  .  .  said  : 
'  The  condition  of  Maine  is  prosperous  to-day — never 
more  so  in  the  sixty-two  years  since  the  State  was  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union. '  In  the  last  twenty-five  years  the 
progress  of  the  people  in  all  forms  of  material  prosperity 
has  been  great.  The  valuation  of  the  property  of  the 
State  has  increased  in  that  time  from  $100,000,000  to 
$225,000,000.  In  1857  Maine  had  eleven  savings-banks, 
with  aggregate  deposits  and  accrued  profits  amounting  to 
$919,571.85.  In  1882,  Mr.  Blaine  says,  '  There  are  fif- 
ty-five savings-banks,  and  their  aggregate  deposits  and 
accrued  profits  are  to-day  about  $30,000,000,  and,  per- 
haps, in  excess  of  that  sum.'  In  1857  there  were  only 
5,000  savings-bank  depositors  ;  in  1882  there  were  nearly 
90,000." 

This  means  prosperity  among  the  common  people — 
young  men,  clerks,  workingmen  and  women,  farmers, 
etc.  They  are  the  patrons  of  savings-banks.  The 
greater  the  number  of  such  depositors,  the  greater  gen- 
eral prosperity.  The  workingman  with  a  deposit  in  tho 
savings-bank  is  not  helpless  in  case  of  sickness  or  acci- 
dent. He  is  not  a  slave  to  a  tyrannical  employer.  In  this 
view  it  is  very  significant  that  the  number  of  depositors 
had  increased  so  vastly,  from  5,000  to  90,000,  or  eighteen 
times.  That  is  to  say,  eighteen  people  were  ahU  to  lay 
up  something  in  1882,  where  one  had  heen  able  to  in 
1857.  While  the  number  of  people  able  to  deposit  some- 
thing in  tlie  b;ink  had  become  eighteen  times  greater,  the 


180  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

amount  they  were  able  to  deposit  had  become  more  than 
thirty  times  as  great,  increasing  from  $900,000  to  $30,- 
000,000.  The  population  of  the  State  in  1860  M^as  628,- 
279,  and  in  1880,  648,936,  giving  an  increase  in  popu- 
lation of  only  about  three  and  one-half  per  cent,  in  the 
twenty -five  j^ears,  while  the  savings-bank  deposits  have 
increased  more  than  twenty-seven  hundred  percent.,  and 
the  number  of  depositors  has  increased  seventeen  hun- 
dred per  cent.  Is  it  any  wonder  the  liquor  men  think 
**. Prohibition  a  failure,"  when  they  see  those  $30,000,- 
000  locked  up  in  savings-banks  which  might  just  as  well 
have  l)ecn  spent  in  the  saloon  ?  Is  it  any  wonder  they 
are  fairly  raving  to  break  over,  and  get  hold  of  those  sav- 
ings-bank deposits,  and  the  constant  daily  earnings  of 
the  people  who  have  been  able  to  lay  up  all  that  money  ? 
The  liquor  traffic  feels  that  it  is  a  kind  of  robbery  to  have 
kept  all  this  cash  out  of  their  hands  so  long.  This  is  the 
prize  they  are  striking  for,  and  which  is  deemed  worth 
unhmited  expense  and  imcomputed  lying.  But  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  welfare  of  the  people  and  the  hap- 
piness of  human  homes  and  hearts,  who  shall  say  how 
much  it  means  to  have  those  $30,000,000  in  the  savings- 
banks,  and  not  to  have  had  them  in  the  saloon  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

KANSAS. 

*'  Kansas  has  abolished  the  saloon.  The  open  dram-shop  traffic  is 
as  extinct  as  the  sale  of  indulgences.  A  drunkard  is  a  phenomenon. 
The  bar-keeper  has  joined  the  troubadour,  the  crusader,  and  the 
mound-builder.  The  brewery,  the  distillery,  and  the  bonded  ware- 
house are  known  only  to  the  archaeologist. ' ' — Senator  Ingalls,  in  27i« 
Forum,  August,  1889. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  this  ?  Kansas  is  a  Prohibition  State.  She 
has  but  one  penitentiary,  with  996  prisoners.  Texas,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  no  Prohibitory  Law,  and,  while  having  100,000  less  peo 
pie  than  Kansas,  has  two  penitentiaries,  containing 3,000 inmates.** — 
Good  HealtK  1889. 

f 

The  State  which  had  been  the  first  battle-ground  in  the 

anti-slaverj  struggle  was  the  first  to  pass  a  Prohibitory 
Constitutional  Amendment.  That  amendment  was 
passed  in  the  year  1880,  and  went  into  effect  with  ap- 
propriate legislation,  May  1st,  1881.  There  were  many 
defects  in  the  earlier  laws,  but  these  have  been  gradually 
removed  until,  in  1887,  the  Murray  Law  made  Prohibi- 
tion effective  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  over  the  greater 
part  of  the  State.  The  border  towns  are  exposed  to  an 
illicit  trade  from  neighboring  States,  and  in  a  few  cities 
officials  yet  wink  at  quiet  violations  of  the  law.  The 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  (in  the  case  of  George  A. 
Bowman  and  Frederick  W.  Bowman  vs.  The  Chicago 
and  Northwestern  Railway  Company,  March  10th,  1888) 
allowing  liquors  to  be  imported  and  delivered  to  consign- 


182  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

ees  in  the  original  packages  also  leads  to  a  considerable 
trade  which  the  State  has  no  power  to  prevent. 

Yet  the  testimony  is  very  strong  in  favor  of  the  value 
and  etficiency  of  the  law. 

The  following  tables  of  official  testimony  as  to  the 
workings  of  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  and  covering  97  of 
the  106  counties  of  the  State,  are  made  up  of  replies  to 
questions  submitted  by  The  Voice  since  February  last  to 
the  county  officials  of  Kansas  without  regard  to  their 
political  affiliations  or  previous  knowledge  of  their  views 
on  Prohibition.  The  first  table  consists  of  replies  from 
83  counties  in  answer  to  questions  sent  to  the  Probate 
Judges  ;  the  second  of  replies  to  questions  sent  to  the 
County  Treasurers,  tlie  treasurers  of  47  counties  replying. 
Every  reply,  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  the  workings  of 
Prohibition,  received  by  The  Voice  to  these  questions 
given  at  the  head  of  the  table,  is  printed  below. 

The  evidence  is  overwhelming  as  to  the  success  of  the 
Prohibitory  Law.  From  the  97  counties  heard  from  94: 
report  positively  that  there  are  no  open  saloons  ;  three 
(jualify  their  answers,  but  do  not  claim  that  there  are  sa- 
loons in  their  counties.  Ninety-two  replies  state  that 
drunkenness  and  the  consumption  of  intoxicants  have 
greatly  diminished  ;  that  the  loss  of  revenue  from  former 
saloon  licenses  has  been  more  than  made  good  by  the  de- 
creasing burdens  of  pauperism  and  crime  under  Prohibi- 
tion, and  by  the  directing  of  the  money  formerly  spent  in 
saloons  into  the  legitimate  channels  of  trade.  Not  a  man 
claims  that  business  has  been  injured  by  Prohibition. 
Of  the  83  replies  received  in  answer  to  the  question, 
*'  Would  you  advise  the  re-establishment  of  the  saloons 
under  a  High  License  Law?"  77  answered  most  emphati- 
cally **No/'4   "Yes,''  while  2  qualify  their  answers. 


KANSAS.  183 

This  tabic  practically  covers  the  State  of  Kansas,  and 
demonstrates  conclusively  that  the  assertion,  **  Pro- 
hibition don't  prohibit,"  has  its  foundation  in  imagina- 
tion instead  of  fact. 

The  first  table  of  answers  of  Probate  Judges  was  pub- 
lished in  The  Voice  of  June  13th,  1889.  It  is  given 
complete  on  the  following  pages,  but  the  questions  and 
answers  are  divided  into  two  sets  to  adapt  it  to  the  size 
of  this  volume. 

In  making  the  summaries  on  the  following  pages  it  has 
been  impossible  to  give  more  than  a  mere  skeleton  of  each 
letter.     Below  we  print  a  few  of  the  letters  in  detail  : 

DRUNKENNESS   REDUCED   NINETY   PER   CENT. 

J.  B.  Dill,  Probate  Judge  of  Jewell  County,  Mankato  :  "  Absolutely 
there  is  not  an  open  saloon  in  the  State  to  my  knowledge.  There  is 
not  one  now  in  this  county  of  20,000  inhabitants,  and  there  has  not 
been  any  in  existence  since  the  law  went  into  effect.  DrunkenDess 
and  the  amount  of  liquor  consumed  for  beverage  purposes  have,  in 
my  opinion,  been  reduced  fully  ninety  per  cent.  The  loss  of  the 
license  revenues  has  certainly  been  more  than  made  good  by  a  great 
lessening  of  the  burdens  resulting  from  pauperism  and  crime  and  by 
an  increase  of  legitimate  business  ;  honest  statistics  are  very  de- 
cidedly favorable  to  Prohibition  in  this  regard.  I  would  by  no  means 
consent  to  the  return  of  the  saloons,  breweries,  and  distilleries  under 
a  High  License  Law,  and  I  am  confident  that  a  very  great  majority 
of  the  voters  and  tax-payers  of  Kansas  would  join  me  in  saying,  a 
thousand  times  Xo  f"  Added  to  this  letter  is  the  following  indorse, 
ment  :  "We,  the  undersigned  citizens  of  Mankato,  Kan.,  heartily 
indorse  the  ubqve  statement.  —J.  P.  Fairchild,  for  the  Bank  of  Man- 
kato ;  George  S.  Bishop,  Vice-President  of  the  First  National  Bank  ; 
A.  Bailey,  Register  of  Deeds  ;  O.  H.  Durand,  Superintendent  of  Pub- 
lic Instruction  ;  E.  A,  Ross,  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  ;  A.  B. 
Peters,  M.D.,  Judge." 

"  MELIilONS  IN   IT." 

B.  R.  Porter,  Probate  Judge  of  Anderson  County,  Gamett  :  "  I  am 
well  acquainted  in  Johnson,  Miami,  Lima,  Allen,  and  Anderson 
counties.     They  have  no  saloons.     There  are  no  saloons  in  Eastern 


184 


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194  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION'. 

Kansas.  The  Murray  Law  is  effectual.  Ninety  per  cent.  U  the  meas- 
ure of  decrease  in  drunkenness  and  drinking.  I  say  emphatically, 
Yes  !— the  former  saloon  revenue  has  been  more  than  made  good  by 
the  benefits  accruing  from  Prohibition.  High  License,  if  advocated, 
would  be  considered  preposterous.  The  great  body  of  our  voting 
population  would  no  more  re-establish  the  saloons,  breweries,  and 
distilleries  than  they  would  advocate  the  use  of  crude  carbolic  acid 
for  gravy  I  The  saloon  in  Kansas  has  gone  and  gone  forever  ;  we 
know  that  we  are  better  off  in  every  way,  morally,  financially,  and 
religiously.  'Tis  true  liquor  is  brought  in  from  Kansas  City  and 
other  points  in  Missouri,  and  it  is  used  slyly.  Sometimes  men  sell 
it  on  the  sly.  This  business  is  called  '  bootlegging.'  At  our  last 
term  of  the  District  Court  one  man  was  convicted  for  selling  in  this 
way,  and  he  was  fined  $100  and  given  a  jail  sentence  of  thirty  days. 
I  have  been  a  resident  of  Anderson  County  for  four  years,  and  during 
that  time  I  have  not  seen  more  than  half  a  dozen  drunken  men,  nor 
do  I  know  of  a  single  crime  committed  by  a  man  while  drunk 
in  this  county,  except  a  case  or  two  of  assault  and  battery  that  I 
heard  of.  *  Eesnbmission  '  was  the  party  cry  of  the  Democrats  and 
a  few  whiskey  Kepublicans  up  to  about  two  years  ago.  That  cry  is 
no  longer  heard  in  the  land.  In  Eastern  Kansas  no  man  advocating 
resubmission  could  possibly  be  elected  to  a  township  or  county 
oflBce.  There  are  *  millions  in  '  Prohibition.  Let  any  State  try  Pro- 
hibition for  ten  years,  even  to  the  extent  that  we  of  Kansas  have 
tried  the  law,  and  it  will  never  return  to  *  the  trade  '  again.  There 
are  millions  in  it  for  any  State  or  people." 

THE   POLICB  FOBCX   BEDUCEO. 

B.  J.  Waters,  Probate  Judge  of  Bourbon  County,  Fort  Scott  : 
"  Prohibition  is  a  complete  success.  My  feeling  is  so  strong  that  I 
wish  I  could  go  to  Pennsylvania  to  tell  the  people  some  facts. 
Drunkenness  has  almost  entirely  disappeared  in  our  city,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  our  population  now  is  nearly  three  times 
greater  than  when  Prohibition  went  into  effect.  The  consumption 
of  intoxicants  as  a  beverage  now  is  confined  to  the  few  who  import 
liquor  for  their  private  use.  There  is  no  place  in  our  city  or  county 
where  liquors  of  any  kind  can  be  purchased,  even  for  medicinal  pur- 
poses. Since  the  aholUion  of  the  liqxior  traffic  our  c'dy  has  prospered  as 
she  never  did  under  the  saloon  system.  When  Prohibition  went  into  effect 
we  had  n  population  of  only  about  5,000,  xcith  22  saloons.  We  now  have 
1.5,000,  and  (mr  police  force  is  not  so  large  as  in  the  days  of  Uie  saloon. 


KANSAS.  19ft 

The  good  resulting  from  the  effects  of  Prohibition  has  been  so  great 
that  I  am  fully  convinced  that  our  people  will  never  favor  the  re- es- 
tablishment of  the  saloon,  either  by  High  License  or  any  other 
method." 

"  AN   ENTIBE  SUCCESS." 

T.  B.  Dickason,  Probate  Judge  of  Brown  Countj',  Hiawatha :  * '  I 
do  hope  that  Pennsylvania  will  do  herself  justice  at  the  coming  elec- 
tion, and  she  can  do  that  only  by  adopting  the  Prohibition  Amend- 
ment.  Prohibition  is  an  entire  success.  There  are  no  open  baloons 
that  I  can  hear  of  in  this  part  of  Kansas.  Drunkenness  and  drink- 
ing have  been  reduced  from  two. thirds  to  three-fourths.  If  the 
General  Government  would  prohibit  the  issuing  of  stamps  to  all  who 
have  not  obtained  local  permits,  the  sale  of  intoxicants  would  be  ma- 
terially lessened.  No  amount  of  revenue  from  the  saloons  can  com- 
pensate for  the  misery  coming  from  the  sale  of  intoxicants.  There 
are  many  more  happy  families  in  Kansas  to-day  than  there  would  be 
under  saloon  rule  and  ruin.  Seeing  the  good  that  has  been  done 
by  our  law,  nothing  could  induce  me  to  recommend  open  saloons 
under  any  circumstances  whatever.  By  refusing  to  tolerate  saloons, 
Kansas  got  rid  of  a  bad  class  of  men  and  gained  better  classes." 

VERY   SEVERE   AGAINST    KUM8EIXER8. 

W.  H.  Bear,  Probate  Judge  of  Coflfey  County,  Burlington  :  "  There 
is  not  a  saloon  or  other  place  in  this  county  that  is  authorized  to 
sell  intoxicating  liquors  of  any  kind.  Drinking  and  intoxication 
have  disappeared  almost  totally.  Public  sentiment  hero  is  harden- 
ing and  growing  more  severe  against  rumsellers  all  the  time.  No  !  a 
hundred  times  no  !  I  would  not  under  any  circumstances  agree  to 
the  establishment  of  High  License  in  Kansas." 

DODGE    CITT   RECLAIMED. 

D.  W,  Moffitt,  Probate  Judge  of  Ford  County,  Dodge  City  :  "  Crime 
has  decreased  wonderfully  under  Prohibition  in  this  part  of  Kansas. 
Dodge  City  used  to  have  a  most  unsavory  reputation— perhaps  the 
worst  reputation  of  any  city  in  the  United  States  ;  but  now  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly quiet  and  very  moral.  Saloons  are  an  unknown  quantity. 
Joints  *  are  being  hunted  from  cover  to  cover  and  driven  out.  The 
amount  of  liquor  consumed  has  been  decreased  to  a  very  great  ex- 
tent.    The  wild  carouses  so  frequent  in  the  days  of  open  saloons  are 


rjG  ECONOMICS  OF   PROHIBITION. 

entirely  unknown  now.     We  would  never  receive  the  saloons  back 
i^pon  the  terms  of  High  License." 

ONLY   ONE    PRISONEB   IN   EIGHTEEN   MONTHS. 

David  Smith,  Probate  Judge  of  Jefferson  County,  Oskaloosa  :  '*  Not 
a  single  saloon  is  running  in  this  county,  which  has  the  distinction 
of  being  the  county  first  settled  in  the  State.  Oskaloosa  is  only 
twenty-five  miles  from  Leavenworth.  If  drunkenness  has  not  been 
diminished  fully  seventy-five  per  cent,  in  Kansas,  why  all  this  whining 
and  howling  by  the  liquor-dealers  of  Kansas  City,  St.  Louis,  and 
elsewhere?  For  proofs  of  the  material  benefits  conferred  upon 
Kansas  by  Prohibition,  see  Governor  Martin's  letter  of  last  year,  and 
Governor  Humphrey's  recent  letter.  Never  would  we  agree  to  take 
the  saloons  back.  Do  you  remember  how  the  Democrats  fought  for 
resubmission  in  this  State  in  the  face  of  ever- increasing  majorities, 
until  last  year  not  a  man  or  a  paper  in  the  State  even  hinted  at  it, 
either  before  or  after  the  campaign  began  ?  And  in  the  face  of  that 
80,000  Republican  majority  last  fall,  do  you  suppose  anybody  will 
ever  say  resubmission  again  in  Kansas  ?  For  eighteen  months  the  only 
nccupard  of  cur  jail  was  a  bootlegger,  who  took  the  risk  of  sneaking  in 
uti  occasional  jug  in  a  small  square  box  by  express  from  Kansas  City, 
and,  filling  his  little  bottles,  doled  the  poison  out  to  a  few  old  topers. 
If  old  soaks  choose  to  order  jugs  of  whiskey  by  express,  concealed  in 
boxes,  they  may  do  so  a  few  times,  but  they  soon  become  ashamed 
of  the  practice.  The  great  and  crowning  glory  of  our  Prohibitory 
Law  is  the  abolition  of  the  open  saloon,  where  drunkards  are  so  easily 
manufactured  out  of  the  young  men  and  boys  through  tippling  and 
treating.  Our  boys  are  no  longer  tempted.  I  have  five  boys,  and 
^an  truthfully  say  I  have  no  fear  that  they  will  acquire  the  drink 
habit.     Can  any  father  in  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  say  as  much  ?'* 

OBEAT   NEWS   FBOM   TOPEKA. 

A.  B.  Quinton,  Probate  Judge  of  Shawnee  County,  Topeka  (the 
State  capital)  :  **  From  my  own  knowledge  I  declare  that  there  are 
no  saloons  in  this  county  of  about  65,000  population,  and  I  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  there  is  no  open  saloon  in  any  part  of 
the  State.  A  drunken  person  is  a  rare  thing  in  Topeka's  Police 
Court,  which  I  presume  is  an  average  court.  It  does  not  have  one 
case  of  drunkenness  where  formerly  twenty  would  stand  charged. 
The  loss  of  the  liquor  revenue  has  been  more  than  made  good.     Our 


KANSAS.  197 

taxes  are  not  higher  than  before  in  any  partioolar,  unless  in»de  so  by 
BOQie  special  improvement  tax.  JVb,  I  Avould  not  advise  a  return  to 
saloons  under  High  License." 

"  PROHIBITION   IS   TOTAL." 

Jesse  Taylor,  Probate  Judge  of  Morton  County,  Richfield  :  **Plt>« 
hibition  is  total  in  this  part  of  the  State.  We  have  no  saloons.  I 
think  drunkenness  and  tippling  have  been  reduced  by  ninety-nine 
one-hundredths.  I  am  no  crank, -but  I  know  what  Prohibition  has 
done  for  Kansas,  and  I  would  not  favor  receiving  the  saloons  again 
under  High  License." 

THK  POLICE  COUBT  HABDLY   PATS  ITS   RXNT. 

W.  M.  Rowney,  Probate  Judge  of  Mitchell  County,  Beloit  :  "  There 
are  no  saloons  here.  They  have  been  closed  for  the  last  four  years. 
Possibly  there  are  places  in  back  rooms  where  certain  persons  can 
get  liquor,  but  boys  and  young  men  do  not  enter  them,  and  they  are 
less  likely  to  become  drunkards  than  they  would  be  with  licensed 
saloons.  There  is  not  one  drunken  person  seen  now  in  this  part  of 
the  State  where  fifty  were  seen  when  saloons  were  licensed.  I  do 
not  believe  one  gallon  of  liquor  is  consumed  now  where  ten  were 
consumed  daring  the  reign  of  the  saloons.  /Since  ihe  Prohibition 
Amendment  toent  into  effect  the  docket  of  the  Police  Judge  of  ihvt  city  has 
been  comparatively  free  from  cases  of  'drunks.'  When  the  saloons  tecre 
open  about  three-fourths  of  all  the  cases  in  the  Police  Cottrt  were  'drunks,' 
and  many  of  the  other  cases  originated  from  ihe  use  of  liquor.  77»e  Po- 
lice Court  now  scarcely  pays  the  rent  of  ihe  office.  Our  j  lils  are  empty, 
and  crime  is  on  the  decrease.  A  large  majority  of  the  people  of  ELan- 
sas  are  very  well  satisfied  with  the  law.  Kansas  has  been  very  much 
helped  socially,  and  from  a  business  point  of  view,  by  Prohibition, 
and  the  people  do  not  care  to  return  to  High  License.  '* 

FROM   A   VEBY    PROMIinEHT  JITDOE. 

T.  J.  Calvin,  Chairman  of  the  House  Committee  on  Temperance  in 
the  Kansas  Legislature  of  1879  and  1881,  and  now  Probate  Jadge  of 
La  Bette  County,  Oswego  :  "  The  statements  made  in  the  East  about 
Prohibition  in  Kansas  are  conscienceless.  I  notice  that  one  state- 
ment  says  :  '  It  is  a  common-sense  proposition  that  if  you  take  from 
a  State  a  lai^e  portion  of  the  revenue  necessary  for  its  maintenance, 
such  deficit  in  revenue  must  be  made  up  by  increased  taxes  on  th« 


198  ECOXOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

remaining  revenue-paying  property  of  the  State.'  I  reply,  It  is  a 
common-sense  proposition  that  if  you  take  from  a  State  the  open 
saloon,  there  will  be  no  use  for  a  large  police  force  to  preserve  order, 
which  more  than  absorbs  the  revenue,  to  say  nothing  of  the  court 
expenses  arising  from  saloons.  The  revenue  from  saloon  licenses 
was  never  enough  to  support  the  police  force.  The  decrease  of  pau- 
perism and  crime  since  Prohibition  came  into  effect  is  really  beyond 
c inception.  It  is  not  true  that  Prohibition  has  increased  taxes. 
Taxes  are  less  in  Kansas  than  they  were  before  Prohibition.  The 
rate  per  cent,  of  tax  depends  on  the  valuation.  In  Kansas,  property 
is  assessed  at  only  about  one-fourth  its  actual  value.  As  to  the  claiiti 
made  by  the  liquor  men  that  more  people  pay  the  United  States 
special  tax  in  Kansas  under  Prohibition  than  under  license,  I  have 
some  facts  to  state.  From  1881  to  1887  there  were  a  great  many 
*  bootleg  •  saloons  in  Kansas,  and  the  operators  procured  United 
States  *  licenses  '  and  sold  on  the  sly.  But  why  don't  the  liquor 
statisticians  refer  to  the  figures  of  United  States  *  permits '  for  Kan- 
sas since  the  law  of  1887  went  into  effect  ?  Kansas  men  know  why. 
There  has  been  a  great  decrease.  In  La  Bette  County,  having  30,000 
population,  there  is  not  a  United  States  license  issued,  and  this  is 
due  to  the  law  of  1887.  The  early  Prohibition  statutes  of  Kansas 
were  imperfect,  but  the  present  law  is  a  success.  Besides,  it  must 
bo  remembered  that  a  great  many  of  the  so-called  United  States  '  li- 
censes'  are  issued  to  drug  stores.  Let  me  ask,  if  Prohibition  is  not 
a  success  in  the  States  where  it  has  been  tried,  why  is  it  that  those 
.States  are  so  strongly  in  favor  of  Prohibition  ?  Why  is  it  that  every 
rum-sucker  is  opposed  to  it  and  every  temperance  man  is  for  it? 
If  any  person  has  doubts  about  the  success  of  Prohibition  in  Kansas, 
let  him  come  and  visit  the  cities  of  this  State  and  try  to  buy  liquor. 
He  will  quickly  find  out  that  Prohibition  prohibits.  In  this  part  of 
the  State  it  has  entirely  closed  the  saloons.  There  is  not  a  place  in 
J  he  county  of  La  Bette  where  liquor  can  be  bought.  /  icill  give  any 
VI  tn  $10  who  will  famish  proof  of  the  purchase  of  so  much  as  one  drop  in 
this  county.  In  the  whole  county,  with  Us  30,000  inhabilants,  it  would  he 
impossible  to  find  an  intoxicated  man  by  diligent  search  in  a  week's  time. 
Occaaionally  yon  will  find  an  old  toper  who  has  been  to  Missouri 
for  rum,  but  such  cases  are  few.  Prohibition  is  the  secret  of  the  un- 
jyarallfled  increase  of  population  and  wealth  of  Kansas  in  the  last  eight 
years.  Every  respectable  citizen  of  Kansas  is  proud  of  the  results  of  the 
ProhJhiiory  Law,  and  if  thf  qnefitlon  were  voted  on  again  there  would  be 
a  majority  of  not  less  than  100,000  in  favor  of  the  law.'' 


KANSAS.  199 

NO  DRUNKEMNEfiS— IKOBXASSD   ESTZRPRX8B. 

W.  A.  McCollam,  ex-Probate  Judge  of  Morris  County,  Council 
Grove  :  **  There  are  no  saloons  in  this  county,  ond  none  in  the  ad- 
joining counties,  I  think.  There  is  essentially  no  drunkenness  in 
sight.  The  cases  tliat  come  to  light  are  exceptional.  The  gain 
financially  has  been  very  great.  The  high  taxation  found  iu  most 
cities  results  from  the  increased  enterprise  of  a  hopeful  people. 
They  are  constantly  building  water-works,  street-railways,  electric- 
light  establishments  and  school-houses.  Propositions  for  the  repeal 
of  Prohibition  and  the  enactment  of  High  License  would  find  little 
favor.  Prohibition  is  already  a  success,  and  every  year  promotes 
its  perfect  operation." 

GROWING  IN  FAVOR  EVERT  TEAR. 

John  C.  Collins,  Probate  Judge  of  Miami  County,  Paola  :  "  Pro- 
hibition prohibits  completely  here.  There  is  no  saloon  in  Miami 
County.  The  Prohibitory  Law  is  enforced  as  well  as  any  of  the 
criminal  laws.  I  think  intoxication  and  drinking  have  been  dimin- 
ished fully  ninety  per  cent.  There  is  practically  no  drunkenness  in 
this  count}',  and  the  vice  is  especially  rare  among  young  men.  The 
Police  Judges  have  very  little  to  do,  although  in  former  days  they 
had  enough.  No  political  party  can  succeed  in  Kansas  that  favors 
re-establishing  the  saloons.  The  law  is  a  success  and  grows  in  favor 
every  year." 

A.  K.  Webb,  Probate  Judge  of  Greeley  County,  Tribune  :  "  Pro- 
hibition has  closed  the  saloons  completely  in  this  part  of  Kansas. 
Not  one  is  now  to  be  found  in  Greeley  County.  In  my  judgment, 
drunkenness  and  the  amount  of  intoxicants  consumed  have  been  de- 
creased ninety  per  cent.  To  your  third  question  I  reply,  '  It  has.'  I 
certainly  could  not  advise  a  return  to  the  liquor  traffic  nnder  EUgh 
License,  knowing  as  I  do  what  Prohibition  has  done  for  the  people 
of  Kansas  and  Iowa  and  for  business." 

J.  W.  Gardner,  Probate  Judge  of  Pratt  County,  Pratt :  '*  Prohibi- 
tion has  closed  every  saloon  in  the  State.  It  has  entirely  eradicated 
drunkenness  in  this  part  of  Kansas  and  banished  intoxicants  as 
beverages.  This  is  a  county  of  13,000  poptdaiion.  The  county  owns 
a  Poor  Rirm  worfh  $12,000.  There  has  not  been  a  single  person  aeni  to 
the  Farm  for  more  than  a  year,  Thne  is  not  a  criminal  case  on  the  doekel 
for  the  .\fay  tfrm  of  Court.     No,  sir.  I  would  not  advocate  a  renewal 


200  ECONOMICS   OF    PROEIBITIOX. 

of  the  legalized  liquor  business  in  Kansas  under  High  License. 
Drinking  intoxicants  is  unpopular  in  this  State." 

Joseph  E.  Lesh,  Probate  Judge  of  Thomas  County,  Colby  :  "We 
know  no  such  thing  as  a  saloon  here.  There  never  has  been  a  saloon 
in  our  thriving  city  since  it  was  organized,  May  8th,  1885,  and  there 
are  no  saloons  in  any  of  the  neighboring  counties.  The  Prohibition 
laws  are  strictly  enforced,  and  Prohibition  is  a  complete  success  in 
Northwestern  Kansas.  Drunkenness  and  drinking  have  been  dimin- 
ished to  such  an  extent  that  an  intoxicated  person  is  never  seen.  I 
do  not  doubt  that  if  the  Prohibitory  Law  were  not  enforced  there 
would  be  occasional  drunkenness,  causing  misery  to  women  and 
children.  The  citizens  of  Thomas  County  let  liquor  alone,  buy 
wholesome  things,  and  live  to  make  their  wives  and  children  happy. 
Yes  !  Yes  1  Yes  !  Yes !  as  you  say,  the  revenue  from  license  has 
indeed  been  more  than  made  good  by  a  great  decrease  in  pauperism 
and  crime  and  by  a  growth  in  lines  of  legitimate  business.  No  ! 
No  !  No  !  No  !  Never  will  we  let  the  miserable  saloons  start  up  again 
in  Kansas  ;  never,  for  any  license  fee.  We  are  determined  to  enforce 
the  Prohibitory  Law  and  keep  out  the  saloons.  High  License  is  no 
benefit,  socially  or  financially,  to  any  country.  We  are  so  much  op- 
posed to  the  rum  traflBc  tbat  in  our  county  we  do  not  even  permit 
the  sale  of  liquors  for  medicinal  or  mechanical  purposes.  Liquor  is 
absolutely  unobtainable  here.  Sach  wines  as  are  needed  for  sacra- 
mental purposes  are  obtained  by  special  orders  from  Kansas  City  or 
St.  Louis." 

J.  T.  Sanders,  Probate  Judge  of  Sumner  County,  W^ellington  : 
*'  This  county  has  a  population  oE  40,000,  but  there  is  not  a  place  in 
it  where  a  drink  of  liquor  of  any  kind  can  be  legally  procured.  A 
very  few  low,  disreputable  people  known  as  bootleggers  are  occa- 
sionally found  peddling  rum,  but  they  are  now  very  scarce.  The 
violations  of  the  Prohibitory  Law  are  but  slightly  in  excess  of  the 
violations  of  laws  against  theft,  forgery,  and  other  crimes.  The  de- 
crease  in  drinking  and  drunkenness  since  the  Prohibitory  Law  went 
into  effect  has  been  not  less  than  ninety  per  cent.,  probably  as  much 
as  ninety-eight  per  cent.  A  drunken  man  is  seldom  seen  now,  and 
when  seen,  public  sentiment  brands  him  as  a  criminal.  Before  Pro- 
hibition was  onaoted,  drunkenness  did  not  debar  a  man  from  en- 
trauoe  to  society.  A  man  who  drinks  to  excess  has  no  staniling 
whatever  now  ;  he  takes  his  place  with  thieves  and  other  criminals. 
Utidtr  license  we  had  15  scdoons  in  this  city  of  10,000  inhabiiants^  and  the 
aatne  number  of  marahala,  police  oncers,  etc.     Now  wo  have  bui  one  mar- 


KANSAS.  201 

shal  and  he  finds  but  Hlile  to  do.  When  (he  aaloona  were  Heenaed  Uk4 
Police  Judge  made  quite  a  large  salary  ;  now  the  office  ia  worth  only  $25 
per  month.  Inveterate  drunkards  are  reformed,  and  pauperism  and  crime 
have  been  diminisfied  to  the  extent  that  the  sale  of  liquor  has  decreased. 
Perhaps  you  will  wish  to  know  how  I  can  with  such  positiveness  de- 
clare that  drunkenness  and  drinking  have  been  decreased  ninety  to 
ninety-eight  per  cent,  in  Sumner  County.  I  will  tell  you.  I  have 
resided  here  for  ten  years.  I  used  to  be  the  agent  of  two  leading 
express  companies,  which  brought  in  nearly  all  the  beer  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  whiskey  used.  Under  the  license  law  we  de- 
livered  from  75  to  200  cases  of  beer  per  day.  Now  it  is  very  seldom 
that  a  case  of  beer  or  a  gallon  of  whiskey  enters  the  city — probably 
not  more  than  four  cases  per  month  are  received  here.  We  have  in 
the  county  only  three  drug-stores  that  are  permitted  to  sell  liquors 
for  lawful  purposes,  and  their  sworn  statements  of  liquors  of  all  kinds 
sold  for  mechanical,  scientific,  and  medicinal  purposes,  for  the  month 
of  April,  showed  only  583  sales.  Yet  the  county,  as  I  have  said,  baa 
40,000  inhabitants.  Besides,  it  lies  on  the  border  of  Oklahoma,  and 
there  was  a  great  rush  through  it  in  April  to  the  land  of  rattlesnakes 
and  malaria,  and  many  of  the  emigrants  did  their  best  to  persuade 
the  druggists  to  make  unlawful  sales.  The  better  people  in  Kansas, 
both  Republicans  and  Democrats,  all  vie  with  each  other  in  praising 
the  Prohibition  Law." 

Samuel  Means,  Probate  Judge  of  Norton  County,  Norton  :  "  There 
is  not  a  place  in  Norton  County  where  any  one  can  buy  liquor,  wine, 
or  beer  openly.  There  is  not  a  single  drug-store  where  the  stuff  i« 
kept  and  can  be  purchased  legally.  There  may  be  bootlegging  going 
on,  but  it  is  done  on  the  sly— very  slyly.  If  liquor  and  beer  are 
shipped  in  from  Nebraska  and  Missouri  they  are  shipped  clandes- 
tinely. 1  am  confident  that  we  have  not  one-tenth  the  drunkenness 
that  prevailed  before  Prohibition.  I  honestly  think  that  the  de- 
crease in  expenses  for  pauperism  and  crime,  as  well  as  the  increase 
iu  legitimate  lines  of  trade,  have  more  than  made  good  the  saloon 
revenues.  The  court  expenses  are  greatly  reduced.  We  have  now  in 
the  Poor-house  only  three  persons  ;  before  Prohibition  came  the  county  paid 
out  from  $5,000  to  $7,000  annually  to  keep  the  poor.  I  would  never  ad- 
vise a  return  to  the  old  saloon  system,  and  we  do  not  intend  to  re- 
turn under  any  circumstances." 

C.  B.  Huffman,  Probate  Judge  of  Pottawatomie  County,  Westmore- 
land :  "  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  there  is  not  an  open  saloon  in 
the  State  of  Kansas.     Some  of  the  saloon  men  fought  the  law  as  long 


203  ECOXOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

as  they  had  means  to  fight  with,  and  they  found  it  was  a  defensive 
warfare,  whose  inevitable  result  was  to  put  the  fighters  into  jail  for 
a  considerable  time.  They  have  quit  fighting  now.  Prohibition 
has  reduced  the  consumption  of  liquor  nine  tenths.  Assertions  to 
the  contrary  are  false,  and  are  made  by  men  whose  only  object  is  to 
injure  the  cause  of  temperance.  A  drunken  man  is  not  seen  now 
where  ten  were  seen  before  the  law  was  passed.  Men  who  could  not 
support  their  families  decently  when  we  had  license,  are  now  getting 
houses  of  their  own.  The  saloon  revenue  paid  io  the  Slate  and  couniies 
under  the  license  law  was  insignificant  compared  with  the  decrease  in  crime 
and  the  reduction  of  costs  in  criminal  cases.  Our  jail  has  not  a  simj'e 
occupant  now,  and  the  last  occupant  xjoas  therefor  violating  the  Prohibilory 
Law.  I  heard  a  very  prominent  criminal  attorney  say  at  the  last  term  of 
Court  here  that  his  business  had  been  ruined.  What  falsehoods  the  liquor 
men  spread  in  the  East  about  Kansas  !  As  for  the  statement  that 
taxation  has  increased,  it  is  utterly  untrue.  The  revenue  from  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks  never  did  and  never 
will  pay  the  expenses  of  criminal  prosecutions  caused  by  their  use. 
There  is  one  of  these  Eastern  misrepresentations  that  is  particularly 
villainous.  It  is  the  one  about  the  so-called  United  States  *  liquor- 
dealers'  license.'  The  reason  there  are  so  many  of  these  so-called 
'  licenses '  in  Kansas  is  this  :  Whenever  any  petty  bootlegger  wants 
to  engage  in  the  business,  he  procures  a  Government  *  license,'  and 
perhaps  the  very  first  little  bottle  that  he  pulls  from  his  boot-top  is 
discovered  by  persons  interested  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law  and 
causes  his  arrest  and  punishment,  I  think  it  is  very  wrong  for  the 
General  Government  to  grant  '  revenue  '  licenses  in  a  State  where  the 
sale  is  prohibited,  unless  the  person  applying  holds  a  permit  duly 
given  by  the  local  authorities  ;  and  even  then  it  is  a  piece  of  mean- 
ness for  a  great  and  rich  Government  to  keep  up  a  system  which 
enables  the  liquor  men  to  make  such  misrepresentations  of  statistics. 
to  say  nothing  of  the  meanness  of  sanctioning  the  sale  of  the  accursed 
beverage,  and  making  money  that  way.  If  the  question  of  Prohibi- 
tion were  resubmitted  to  the  people,  not  one-fourth  of  them  would 
vote  for  re- establishing  the  old  traffic.  The  nearer  we  come  to  total 
Prohibition,  the  more  we  want  it.'^ 

G.  C.  Underwood,  Probate  Judge  of  Grant  County,  Ulysses  :  "  The 
saloons  are  all  closed,  and  the  Prohibitory  Law  was  the  means  of 
closing  them.  If  the  people  are  in  favor  of  the  law,  the  saloons  can 
be  closed  every  time.  In  this  county  drunkenness  and  drinking 
have  been  diminished  four-fifths  ;  and  there  would  be    still    less 


KANSAS.  208 

(Iraukenness  if  topers  did  not  ship  liquor  in  under  falHd  naiucH  from 
other  States.  Prohibition  lessens  pauperism  and  builds  scbool. 
houses  and  churches  instead  of  poor-houses.  It  elevates  the  people 
to  a  higher  plane  of  morality.  I  would  by  no  means  say  any  vord 
that  could  be  construed  to  mean  a  willingness  to  accept  the  traffic 
again  upon  any  conditions.  The  benefits  from  Prohibition  are  bo 
many  that  I  cannot  enumerate  them.  Under  it  there  is  no  chance 
for  minors  to  get  liquors.  We  do  not  have  the  crimes  that  prevail 
among  people  who  tolerate  the  whiskey  traffic.  My  experience 
teaches  me  that  taxes  decrease  instead  of  increase  under  Prohibition. 
LeCore  the  Prohibitory  Law  went  into  effect  my  taxes  (in  Bourbon 
County)  were  $3.25  per  $100.  I  have  not  paid  so  high  a  rate  at  auj 
time  since.  This  year  the  tax-rate  (on  a  low  assessment)  is  $3  per 
$100  in  Grant  County,  and  the  school-tax  alone  accounts  for  one-half 
of  the  total.  As  for  the  United  States  liquor-dealei-s*  '  permits,'  I 
want  to  say  that  at  this  time  there  is  only  one  in  the  whole  of  Grant 
Count  J',  and  it  is  held  by  a  druggist." 

J.  R,  S.  Birch,  Probate  Judge  of  Washington  County,  Wnshington  : 
"  There  is  not  a  saloon,  to  my  knowledge,  within  the  State.  Drunk- 
enness and  the  amount  of  liquor  used  have  been  reduced  to  a  very 
great  extent.  The  saloon  revenue  has  been  made  good  ten  times  over  by 
a  decrease  in  the  burdens  resulting  from  pauperism  and  crime,  and  by 
putting  money  into  legitimate  lines  of  trade.  No,  decidedly,  I  wonld  not 
advise  bringing  back  the  saloons  under  High  License."  [This  letter 
was  received  since  the  last  issue  of  77.e  Voice  went  to  press,  and 
therefore  was  not  included  in  the  table  printed  a  week  ago. — Ed. 
The  Voice.] 

G.  G.  Wade,  Probate  Judge  of  Bush  County,  La  Crosse  :  **  All  sa- 
loons in  our  part  of  the  State  are  closed.  In  my  judgment,  the 
Prohibitory  Law  has  diminished  drunkenness  and  the  consumption 
of  intoxicants  here  about  sixty  per  cent.  Some  liquors  are  smuggled 
into  this  county  for  individual  use.  In  this  county  the  saloon  reve- 
nue is  more  than  compensated  for  by  benefits  resulting  from  the 
law.  No,  never  would  I  advise  re-establishing  saloons,  breweries, 
and  distilleries  under  High  License. " 

TESTIMONY    OF     COUNTY    TBEA8UEEBS. 

The  following  table  is  made  up  of  replies  to  a  scries 
of  questions  sent  by  The  Voice  in  February,  1^89,  to  every 
C/Ounty  Treasurer  in  the  State  of  Kansas  as  to  the  work- 


204  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

ingand  effects  of  the  Prohibitory  Law  in  that  State.*  It 
contains  every  reply — favorable  or  unfavorable — re- 
ceived by  The  Voice  up  to  the  time  of  putting  this  table 
in  type.  The  following  is  a  condensed  summary  of  the 
replies  to  the  questions  in  following  table  : 

SUMMABT. 

Question  L — To  what  extent  is  the  Prohibition  Law  successfully 
enforced  in  your  section  ?— 43  replies,  and  only  1  answers  that  the 
law  is  not  successfully  enforced  ;  1  says  "  occasionally  violated  ;" 
1  answers  *'  eighty  per  cent.;"  and  1  **  fairly  well." 

Question  II. — What  can  you  say  of  its  effect  in  closing  up  the  sa- 
loons?—45  replies  ;  37  say  that  all  saloons  are  closed  ;  1  replies 
**  excellent  ;"  1,  *' good  from  every  standpoint;"  2,  "good;"  1, 
"  few  open  saloons  ;"  1,  "  a  great  many  closed  ;"  1,  "makes  saloons 
out  of  drug-stores  ;"  and  1,  "  have  found  saloons  in  some  parts  of 
the  State." 

Question  III. — To  what  extent  has  it  diminished  drunkenness  and 
the  use  of  intoxicants  for  beverage  purposes  ? — 46  replies,  38  of  which 
agree  that  it  has  diminished  drunkenness  and  drinking  from  fifty  to 
ninety-nine  per  cent.,  or  *'  almost  totally  ;"  1,  that  it  has  "  lessened 
some  ;"  1,  "  lessened  drinking  among  the  young  ;"  1,  "  confined  to 
jugs  from  Missouri  ;"  1,  **  drunkenness  caused  by  contact  with 
Missouri"  (a  High-License  State)  ;  1,  "  not  diminished  ;"  1,  *'  none  ;" 
1,  "  cannot  state  ;"  while  1  replies  that  it  has  ''increased  drunken- 


Question  IV. — What  is  the  effect  of  Prohibition  on  business  inter- 
ests, and  the  attraction  or  repulsion  of  capital  for  investment  ? — 45 
replies,  28  of  which  declare  that  Prohibition  has  been  decidedly 
beneficial ;  6,  "  that  it  has  had  no  bad  effect  ;"  G,  '*  that  they  see  no 
difference  ;"  1,  "  cannot  tell  ;"  1,  "  that  times  are  hard,  but  not  due  to 
Prohibition  ;"  1,  *'  dull  as  thunder  ;"  1,  "  has  destroyed  values  ;"  and 
1,  "  like  a  bombshell  in  an  army." 


*  For  special  provisions  of  *•  The  Murray  Law"  in  regard  to 
enforcement,  with  penalties  against  non-enforcing  officers,  see  p. 
170. 


KANSAS.  *>0r» 

QuisTioN  v.— Has  money  which  was  formerly  spent  in  the  hulociiM 
been  directed  to  legitimate  channels  of  trade  ?— 42  repli»  k,  ;'>:{  of 
which  answer  yes  ;  1,  "  presume  so  to  great  extent  ;"  1,  "  about  fifty 
per  cent.;"  1,  "in  some  cases  ;"  1,  '*  where  dives  are  closed,  yes  ;" 
1,  "  yes,  except  what  goes  to  license  States  ;"  1,  has  "  no  observa- 
tion ;"  1,  notices  "no  visible  effect  ;'  1,  "guess  not;"  and  1, 
"  no." 

Question  VI.— Has  Prohibition  tended  to  increase  or  decrease 
taxes  ? — 44  replies,  21  of  which  reply  to  decrease  ;  4.  *'  that  taxes  have 
not  increased  ;"  7,  **  see  no  change  ;"  6,  '•  cannot  say  ;"  1,  *'  tended  to 
increase  at  first;"  1,  "small  increase;"  1,  "increased  slightly;" 
and  3,  "  increased." 

Question  VII. — What  has  been  the  effect  of  Prohibition  on  criminal 
conditions  ? — 45  replies,  33  answering  most  emphatically  that  crime 
hasdecreased  ;  1,  "  verygood  ;"  1,  "  good  every  where  ;"  1,  "good  ;" 
1,  "jail  full  of  convicted  whiskey  sellers  ;"  2,  "  can  see  no  differ- 
ence ;"  4,  "  cannot  say  ;"  1,  '*  crime  not  reduced  ;"  and  1,  "  crimi- 
nals increased  from  liquor  prosecutions." 

Question  VIU.-  Has  pauperism  increased  or  decreased  under  Pro- 
hibition?—45  replies,  30  of  which  answer  "decreased;"  1,  "no 
paupers  here  ;"  1,  "  pauperism  at  low  ebb  ;"  1,  "no  paupers  ;"  1, 
"  decreased,  if  any  ;"  1,  "  not  increased  ;"  1,  "about  the  same  ;** 
1,  "no  effect  ;"  1,  "  no  change  ;"  1,  "little  change  ;"  4,  "cannot 
say  ;"  1,  "  increased,  but  Prohibition  nothing  to  do  with  it ;"  and 
1,  "  increased,  some  fools  lay  it  to  Prohibition." 

Question  IX.— What  effect  has  Prohibition  on  the  growth  of  the 
State  in  number  and  character  of  population  ?-  43  replies,  28  of  which 
declare  that  it  has  been  beneficial  to  the  growth  and  character  of  the 
population  ;  1,  "most  glorious  ;"  1,  **  very  good  ;"  2,  "good  ;"  1, 
"  better  than  ever  before  ;"  1,  '*  excellent  ;'*  1,  "  never  more  pros- 
perous ;"  1,  the  •*  places  of  drnnkards  filled  by  good  citizens  ;"  2, 
"  no  effect  ;"  1,  "decreased  foreign  immigration  more  than  made 
up  by  natives  of  good  character  ;"  4,  "  cannot  say." 

With  but  two  or  three  exceptions  the  opponents  of 
Prohibition  will  find  little  satisfaction  in  these  official  re- 
plies from  47  Kansas  counties. 

As  before,  the  questions  and  answers  are  given  in  full, 
but  in  two  sets,  to  accommodate  them  to  the  limits  of 
these  pages. 


2Ut> 


ECOXOMICS   Ui     i'KuilliJiTIOX. 


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ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION". 


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214  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITIOX. 

To  these  tables  we  may  add  the  testimony  of  ex-Gov- 
ernor Martin,  of  Kansas,  delivered  while  he  still  held  the 
executive  office. 

GOVERNOR   ^lARTIN'S  ADDRESS. 

The  following  address  was  delivered  by  Governor  John  A.  Martin,  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  Kansas  State  Temi)erance  Union,  in  Representative  Hall,  Topeka, 
June  12th,  1888 : 

During  the  past  four  years  I  have  had,  I  think,  a  fair  opportunity 
to  learn  what  has  been  accomplished  in  this  State.  I  have  visited 
nearly  every  section  of  it,  and  have  talked  with  officers  or  citizens  of 
every  county.  I  have  watched,  with  interest,  the  course  of  events, 
and  the  development  of  public  sentiment  touching  the  temperance 
question.  I  certainly  have  no  reason  to  misrepresent  the  condition 
of  affairs  in  Kansas.  I  have  never  made  any  secret  of  the  fact  that  I 
/voted  against  the  Prohibition  Amendment,  and  I  cannot,  therefore, 
be  suspected  of  a  desire  to  vindicate  my  own  original  judgment  when 
I  declare,  as  I  do,  that  in  my  opinion  this  State  is  to-day  the  most 
temperate,  orderly,  sober  community  of  people  in  the  civilized  world. 
1  realize  fully  the  force  of  this  statement,  and  am  prepared  to 
sustain  it  here  or  anywhere. 

First.  I  assert  in  the  most  positive  language,  that  the  temperance 
laws  of  Kansas  are  enforced  as  earnestly^,  as  fully,  and  as  effectively 
iw  are  any  other  laws  on  our  statute  books,  or  as  are  the  criminal  laws 
of  any  other  State  in  the  Union. 

Second.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  to-day  an  open  saloon  with- 
in the  limits  of  the  State  of  Kansas  ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  such  a  sa- 
loon has  existed,  within  the  borders  of  this  State,  for  more  than  a 
year  past.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  intoxicating  liquors  are  not 
sold  in  Kansas.  But  I  do  assert,  with  emphasis  and  earnestness, 
that  the  open  saloon,  as  it  existed  here  at  the  State  capital  three 
years  ago,  and  as  it  is  known  to-day  in  all  other  States  where  the 
liquor  traffic  is  legalized  or  licensed,  has  been  banished  from  Kansas 
utterly. 
/  Third.  I  assert  that  whenever  or  wherever  liquors  are  sold  in  Kan- 
sas at  all,  they  are  sold  just  as  other  crimes  are  committed — namely, 
in  secret  —just  as  houses  are  robbed,  or  horses  are  stolen,  and  by 
men  who  live  in  daily  and  hourly  terror  of  the  law. 

Fourth.  I  affirm  that,  as  a  rule,  arrests  of  those  who  violate  onr 


KANSAS.  216 

temperance  laws  are  as  swift  and  certain,  and  thoir  punishment, 
when  arrested,  as  sure  and  full  as  are  arrests  and  punishments  of  anj 
other  class  of  law-breakers  or  criminals. 

Fifth.  I  believe  and  declare  that,  as  a  result  of  the  enforcement  of 
our  Prohibitory  Laws,  and  the  banishment  of  the  open  saloon,  full/ 
nine-tenths  of  the  drinking  and  drunkenness  prevalent  in  Kanaafl 
eight  years  ago,  has  been  abolished  ;  that  thousands  of  men  who 
were  then  almost  constantly  under  the  influence,  more  or  less,  of  in- 
toxicants, are  now  temperate  and  sober  ;  and  that  in  thousands  of 
homes  all  over  this  State,  where  want,  wretchedness,  and  woe  were 
then  the  invited  guests  of  drunken  husbands  and  fathers,  plenty, 
peace,  and  contentment  now  abide. 

Sixth.  I  assert  that,  in  every  town  and  city  throughout  the  State, 
arrests  for  drunkenness  are  annually  decreasing,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  their  populations  are  steadily  increasing. 

Seventh.  I  affirm  that  public  sentiment  in  nearly  every  section  of 
Kansas  has  been  steadily  strengthening  in  favor  of  rigid  temperance 
laws  and  their  rigid  enforcement,  and  that  this  growing  sentiment  Ih 
due  to  the  plainly  apparent  and  now  generally  conceded  fact  that 
our  temperance  laws  have  largely  abolished  drinking  and  drunken- 
ness, and  the  poverty,  wretchedness,  and  crime  of  which  the  open 
saloon  is  the  fruitful  and  certain  cause. 

Eighth.  I  assert  that  this  development  of  public  sentiment  has  made 
drinking  unfashionable.  The  abolition  of  the  saloon  has  practical- 
ly abolished  the  American  habit  of  treating.  Young  men  in  Kansas 
no  longer  regard  drinking  as  an  assertion  of  manhood.  They  know 
that  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  is  more  or  less  a  bar  to  confidence, 
employment,  or  preferment,  and  especially  to  political  preferment. 
The  way  to  office  does  not  lead,  as  it  did  eight  or  ten  years  ago, 
through  the  open  saloon.  The  saloon  as  a  potential  factor  has  been 
eliminated  from  our  political  system.  Society  does  not  make  ex- 
cuses for  nor  coddle  the  men  whose  breath  smells  like  a  distillery. 
Men  of  confirmed  drinking  habits  are,  as  a  rule,  ashamed  to  be  seen 
drinking,  and  the  bad  example  of  their  habits  is  thus  not  flaunted 
before  the  public  eye,  to  seduce  and  debauch  young  boys  and  cal> 
low  youth.  All  these  things  have  had  their  influences,  and  have 
wrought  the  happiest  results  in  making  drinking  not  only  unfashion- 
able, but,  in  large  measure,  unpopular  and  discreditable,  and  the 
effects  are  plainly  seen  in  the  marked  society  of  a  Kansas  assemblage 
of  any  character,  civil,  military,  or  political.  Public  sentiment  is 
often  more  powerful  than  statutes,  and,  in  KansAR,  law  and  public 


216  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

opinion  nnito  in  regarding  sobriety  as  the  highest  virtue  of  man- 
hood. 

The  enemies  of  all  temperance  la-ws  are  constantly  asserting  that 
Prohibition  is  a  failure  ;  that  more  liquor  is  used  in  Kansas  than 
was  used  when  the  saloons  were  open  ;  and  that  drinking  and  drunk- 
enness have  not  been  reduced. 

I  avail  myself  of  this  occasion,  also,  to  make  some  suggestions 
which,  it  seems  to  me,  are  worthy  of  consideration  by  your  organiza- 
tion, and  by  all  friends  of  temperance  in  Kansas. 

Wherever  and  whenever  the  laws  are  not  honestly  enforced,  the 
local  judicial  ofl&cers — that  is,  the  county  attorneys  and  sheriffs — are 
the  responsible  parties.  It  is  practically  impossible  for  any  one  to 
Bell  intoxicating  liquors  as  a  beverage,  in  any  town  or  city  in  Kansas, 
if  the  county  attorney  and-  sheriffs  of  the  county  do  their  duty. 
These  officers  co-operating  together  can  make  the  illegal  selling  of 
liquor  impossible.  A  sheriff  who  is  indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  laws, 
can  largely  nullify  any  efforts  of  a  county  attorney  to  enforce  them, 
and  vice  versa.  These  are  the  two  officers  who,  above  all  others, 
have  the  absolute  power,  if  they  have  also  the  will,  to  abolish  liquor 
selling.  Both  should  be  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  our  laws,  and 
resolve  to  see  that  they  are  obeyed,  or  liquor  selling  cannot  be  wholly 
prevented.  Of  course  the  police  force  of  any  city  can  do  a  great  deal 
to  suppress  the  liquor  traffic,  but  even  a  police  force  earnestly  en- 
deavoring to  accomplish  this  result,  can  be  thwarted  in  its  endeavors 
by  a  county  attorney  and  sheriff  who  will  wink  at  or  encourage  vio- 
lations of  the  law.. 

In  nearly  every  county  in  Kansas,  I  am  glad  to  say,  the  local  judi. 
oial  officers  are  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  our  laws,  and  prose- 
cute, with  vigor  and  sincerity,  all  who  violate  them.  In  only  a  few 
counties  are  the  sheriffs  or  county  attorneys  opposed  to  the  Prohibi- 
tion Law,  and  so  do  little  or  nothing  to  enforce  its  provisions. 

What  is  needed  in  Kansas  is  not  more  laws  on  this  subject,  nor 
more  rigorous  laws,  but  simply  a  sincere  and  vigorous  enforcement 
of  the  laws  we  have.  It  is  a  mistake  to  change  or  modify  laws  at 
every  session  of  the  Legislature,  and  the  friends  of  temperance 
Hhould  not  make  such  a  mistake. 

In  conclusion,  I  want  to  thank  the  officers  and  members  of  your 
organization  for  the  generous  and  helpful  support  they  have  given 
me  as  the  executive  of  the  State.  It  is  natural,  I  know,  that  men 
and  women  devoted,  as  yon  have  been  and  are,  to  a  great  cause, 
•hould  At  times  imagine  that  everything  was  not  being  done  that 


KAN.sA.>.  *?17 

oonid  be  done  to  promote  its  Buooess.  Gr«at  reforms  move  slowly. . 
Great  results  are  never  accomplished  in  a  brief  time.  In  Kansas  we 
are  attempting  to  abolish  a  business  that  has  been  legalized  or  li. 
censed  for  centuries  ;  a  business  whose  large  pecuniary  profits  tempt 
thousands  of  men  ;  a  business  that  has,  to  sustain  it  the  appetites, 
hereditary  or  cultivated,  of  tens  of  thousands  ;  a  business  that  cur. 
torn,  sentiment,  and  even  law,  has  regarded  as  a  necessary  evil. 

The  wonder  is,  therefore,  not  that  so  little  has  been  accomplished, 
but  that  so  much  hns  been  done  to  banish  from  this  great  common- 
wealth this  monstrous  evil.  I  have  endeavored  to  state  the  accom- 
plished results,  as  briefly  and  as  clearly  as  is  possible,  and  I  feel 
confident  that  the  facts  I  have  summarized— and  they  are  facts  be. 
yond  dispute— will  be  a  source  of  joy  and  pride  to  every  honest, 
sensible,  practical  friend  of  temperance  in  this  State. 

In  answer  to  this  mass  of  testimony  we  have  seen  noth- 
ing on  the  other  side  that  deserves  serions  consideration. 
It  miglit  be  said  of  it  all,  as  was  strikingly  shown  under 
oath  in  one  case,  that  the  informant's  knowledge  of 
liquor  selling  in  Kansas  increases  directly  as  the  square 
of  his  distance  from  the  State.  Undoubtedly  liquor  can 
be  procured  in  Kansas,  and  undoubtedly  horses  can  be 
stolen  there.  To  have  done  either  is  more  discreditable 
to  the  man  who  has  done  it  than  to  the  law  which  forbids 
it.     Mr.  Maynard  says  : 

"  The  Kansas*  saloons  of  to-day,  the  '  joints,*  have  few  things  in 
common  with  the  legalized  gin  palaces,  the  sumptaons  bar-rooms  of 
other  States.  I  have  seen  the  interiors  of  some  of  them,  and  I  know 
whereof  I  speak.  The  flashing  mirrors,  the  polished  furniture,  the 
cut-glass  bottles,  the  sensuous  pictures,  the  music,  the  troops  of 
noisy,  coarse,  and  brazen  men  and  women — none  of  these  things  are 
found  in  the  Kansas  saloon.  The  place  itself  yon  will  have  great 
difficulty,  in  most  instances,  in  finding,  nnless,  as  the  phrase  go«s, 
•you  know  the  ropes.'  Entrance  to  a  'joint'  must  be  sought 
through  the  medium  of  diplomacy,  of  whispers,  winks,  signal  raps, 
and  jjasswords.  If  you  are  a  stranger  in  a  town  where  'joints  '  ex- 
ist, and  yuu  are  anxious  to  gain  an  entrance  to  one,  the  best  thing 
for  you  to  do  is  to  '  fall  in,'  so  far  as  you  dare,  with  the  most  dia- 


218  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

reputable  gang  you  can  find  about.  If  you  can  succeed  in  overcom- 
ing any  suspicion  which  may  exist  as  to  your  own  disreputableness, 
yoa  may  be  shown  the  way  into  a  '  joint.'  You  will  be  taken,  per- 
haps, to  some  tumble-down  building  in  a  back  alley,  into  a  secret 
room  connected  with  a  blacksmith-shop  or  a  livery  stable,  in  a  dark 
hole  underground,  or  up  into  a  dingy  garret,  always  being  sure 
everywhere  as  you  approach  these  places  that  the  coast  is  clear.  And 
when,  at  last,  the  raps  being  given  and  the  bolts  drawn,  you  find 
yourself  in  a  'joint,'  you  begiil  to  realize  what  a  desolate,  ugly,  re- 
pulsive place  a  saloon  is  when  it  is  stripped  of  all  those  glittering 
accessories  which  are  designed  to  seduce  the  weak  and  unwary  to 
indulgence  in  drink,  a  place  where  the  liquor  traffic  stands  forth  by 
itself  in  all  its  bare  and  hideous  reality.  A  small,  dimly  lighted, 
dirty  room,  a  rude  wooden  bench  or  two,  a  few  chairs,  a  few  ordi- 
nary glasses  and  black  bottles  on  a  shelf,  a  jug  of  whiskey-,  and  a 
cask  or  two  of  beer— these  are  the  surroundings  and  the  outfit  of  the 
average  '  joint.'  The  stock  of  liquors  on  hand  is  always  very  limit- 
ed, for  it  is  not  considered  wise  to  invest  a  large  amount  of  capital 
in  liquids  which  are  liable  to  be  confiscated  any  day  and  spilled  in 
the  gutter.  In  most  cases  the  stock  on  hand  is  so  small  that  it  can 
be  whisked  out  of  sight  in  a  moment  if  necessity  demands  it.  A 
single  jug  of  whiskey  or  a  case  of  beer  is  considered  sufficient  to 
start  a  '  joint.'  -\nd,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  there  is  a  notable 
absence  in  these  places  of  those  sights  and  sounds  so  common  in  our 
legalized  *  joints  '  in  other  States.  The  glitter  and  flash,  the  coarse 
laughter,  the  maudlin  song,  the  loud  oath,  the  shouting  and  brawl- 
ing, the  jostling,  swaggering  crowds  of  boys  and  men,  passing  in  and 
out,  none  of  these  things  are  to  be  seen  or  heard  around  the  Kansas 
saloons.  They  are  not  the  political  centres  of  the-  community,  the 
sources  of  local  governmental  power  and  inspiration,  places  for  the 
concoction  of  political  schemes,  rendezvous  of  thieves,  gamblers, 
procuresses,  and  all  other  persons  who  live  at  the  expense  of  the 
peace,  virtue,  and  industry  of  their  fellow-men.  They  are  none  of 
these  things,  because  there  is  no  occasion  or  incentive  for  them  to 
become  such.  Those  who  frequent  them  sneak  in  and  out  with  as 
little  delay  and  as  little  noise  as  possible.  Business  is  carried  on  in 
subdued  tones,  and  glasses  are  clinked  very  lightly,  if  at  all. 

"  Liquor  cannot  bo  obtained  in  any  way  or  anywhere  except  by 
the  methods  of  the  sneak-thief  or  the  midnight  marauder.  If  you 
taust  have  the  stuff,  you  must  crawl  for  it,  and  make  common  cause 
with  the  vilest  of  the  earth." 


KANSAS,  219 

When  a  man  boasts  that  he  has  '*  got  all  the  liquor  he 
wanted"  in  Kansas,  we  are  driven  to  certain  conclusions 
aa  to  his  character  and  associates.  He  is  not  the  best 
kind  of  a  witness  to  anything.  In  conversation  with  a 
leading  merchant  of  Topeka,  he  remarked  to  the  author, 
"  Our  business  men  will  not  employ  a  clerk  who  is 
known  to  visit  joints,  for  we  do  not  trust  him.  We  hold 
that  a  man  who  will  break  that  law  will  break  any  other 
law."  We  have  not  too  much  confidence  in  a  man's 
keeping  the  law  of  veracity  after  he  has  been  drinking 
in  all  the  ''  joints"  of  Kansas. 

From  Leavenworth,  which  perhaps  resisted  as  hard 
and  as  long  as  any  city,  we  have  the  following  testi- 
mony :* 

HOW  THE   CITY  DIDN'T  "  GO  TO   THE   DOGS." 

Seven  years  ago,  when  the  saloons  had  full  swing,  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  borrow  money  on  Leavenworth  real  estate  ;  now  som* 
of  the  best  companies  in  America  have  agents  here  soliciting  loans. 
In  the  two  years  since  the  salouns  were  closed  one  of  oar  banks  has 
added  $150,000  to  its  capital.  Two  new  banks  have  been  established. 
The  River.iide  Coal  Mine  has  been  sunk  by  Kansas  City  capitalists, 
and  is  now  giving  employment  to  180  men.  A  coal  mine  is  being 
sunk  by  a  company  of  480  workingmen,  who  have  subscribed  a  capital 
of  $50,000  ;  and  this  mine  will  be  down  to  coal  by  the  beginning  of 
March. 

Mr.  Harkness,  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  and  others,  have 
bought  1,600  acres  of  land  and  are  opening  a  coal  mine  which  will 
employ  600  men.  A  new  flour  mill  has  been  built.  The  real  estate 
transfers  for  the  last  two  years  amounted  to  $2,324,000. 

The  Leavenworth  Standard,  a  Democratic  paper  opposed  to  Pro- 
hibition, said,  January  2d  : 

"  This  year  we  have  had  what  might  be  called  a  boom  in  small 
dwellings,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year,  in  large  brick  buildings. 
Two  hundred  and  nine  buildings  have  been  put  up,  at  a  cost  of 


*  See  The  Vwx  of  January  Slat,  1889. 


220  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION'. 

$208,389.  The  remaining  seven  buildings  are  the  Union  Depot, 
Santa  Fe  Freight  and  Passenger  Depot,  the  public  building,  and  the 
hospital  at  the  Soldiers'  Home,  which  will  cost  $635,000,  making  a 
total  for  the  year  in  buildings  of  $861,391. 

The  209  buildings  spoken  of  are  nearly  all  workingmen's  dwellings. 
The  money  that  would  have  been  spent  for  whiskey  last  year,  if  the 
saloons  had  been  open,  was  put  into  homes.  I  have  lived  here  for 
thirty  years,  and  in  all  that  time  have  never  seen  brick  buildings 
going  up  in  the  winter  ;  but  this  winter  men  are  at  work  erecting 
houses. 

All  the  citizens  declare  that  Leavenworth  was  never  so  prosperous, 
and  even  our  most  conservative  business  men  admit  that  they  would 
not  have  the  saloons  again.  The  increase  of  business  has  been  such 
tinder  Prohibition  and  the  condition  of  all  classes  (especially  the 
poor)  has  improved  so  much,  that  if  a  vote  were  taken  now  upon  the 
Prohibition  issue  in  Leavenworth  the  vote  in  favor  of  the  saloons 
would  be  so  small  that  it  would  hardly  be  worth  counting. 

DECBEASE  OF   CKIMB. 

Official  statistics  support  all  the  above  statement  about  the  im- 
provement of  Leavenworth  under  enforced  Prohibition.  Attorney- 
General  Bradford  gives  these  figures  of  commitments  to  the  peniten- 
tiary from  Leavenworth  County  :  1886  (open  saloons),  36  ;  1887 
(closed  saloons),  13  ;  first  half  of  1888  (closed  saloons),  5. 

Bev.  Sumner  T.  Martin,  of  Leavenworth,  in  a  letter  to  The  Voice, 
testifies  to  the  beneficial  results  of  Prohibition.  He  says  that  some 
liquor  is  undoubtedly  sold  secretly,  but  that  conditions  are  steadily 
growing  better.  He  attributes  the  success  of  the  law  largely  to  the 
Metropolitan  Police  system. 

The  Cincinnati  Journal  and  Messenger  of  March  13th, 
1890,  contains  the  following  testimony  from  Chief  Jus- 
tice Horton,  of  tlie  Kansas  Supremo  Court  : 

"  Prohibition  has  now  been  the  law  in  Kansas  for  eight  years  ;  it 
is  a  law  at  present,  it  will  continue  to  be  the  law  in  future.  Resub- 
mission  is  called  for  only  by  the  enemies  of  the  law  ;  its  friends, 
who  are  in  a  large  majority,  do  not  desire  resubmission.  They  do 
not  wish  to  bear,  as  tax-payers,  the  expense  of  resubmission  ;  they 
are  not  anxious  for  the  presence  of  whiskey  orators  and  whiskey  news- 
paper correspondents,  for  the  most  part  non-residonts  of  the  State, 


KAN'S  AS.  381 

and  with  no  permanent  interest  in  Kansas,  going  ftboat  defaming 
people  of  the  State,  exaggerating  present  evils  that  greater  evils  may 
come.  The  people  of  Kansas  do  not  care  to  have  the  Btato  again 
made  the  scene  of  the  expenditure  of  laoney  by  liquor-dealers'  aaao* 
ciations  ;  nor  do  they  wish  the  jointist  or  '  boot-legger,*  who  still 
lurks  and  skulks  in  Kansas,  to  believe  that  there  is,  or  is  to  be  a 
suspension  of  judgment  in  his  case.  There  are  thousands  of  children 
in  Kansas  who  have  now  arrived  at  the  years  of  observation  and  discretion 
who  have  never  se^n  a  saloon.*  It  is  the  intention  of  the  great  majority 
of  the  voters  in  Kansas  that  whilo  these  children  remain  in  Kansas 
they  never  shall  see  one.  It  is  the  determination  of  this  majority, 
a  majority  which  is  being  daily  re-enforced,  that  the  word  *  saloon  ' 
shall  never  meet  the  eyes  of  the  children  as  they  file  out  of  tho  doors 
of  the  publio  school.  With  the  education  these  children  are  re- 
ceiving, it  is  absolutely  certain  that  when  they  become  voters  they 
will  sustain  the  doctrine  of  Prohibition." 

To  which  wo  will  add  the  following  testimony  from 
a  letter  to  the  Chicago  Lever,  dated  xVugust  12tli,  18S9  ; 

THE   DRDNKAED'S  PARADISE. 

WHAT    PBOHIBITION    IS    DOINO    IN    KANSAS — MEBCHANTS    TESTIFY    OF    ITS 
EFFECT  ON  BUSINESS— THE   GREATEST  MAJIVEL  OF  THE  AGE. 

As  for  Kansas,  the  merchants  are  satisfied  with  the  law  as  it 
stands,  and  while  it  is  not  absolutely  perfect,  it  is  better  than  the 
open  saloon,  and  takes  away  the  publio  example  and  temptation,  so 
that  many  people  who  drank  from  habit  when  liquor  was  in  sight,  now 
that  it  is  80  hard  to  procure  have  entirely  abandoned  it  and  never 
give  it  a  thought. 

A   MEBCHANT 

in  one  of  the  towns  of  Kansas  related  to  the  Lever  correspondent  a 
fact  which  is  a  fair  sample  of  most  towns  in  the  State  when  saloons 
were  in  full  blast.  Ho  had  a  few  former  customers  who  always 
brought  in  turkeys  and  other  products  of  their  farms  and  sold  them. 


♦  The  author  personally  knew  of  the  following  incident :  A  bridal 
couple  from  the  interior  of  Kansas  stopped  to  visit  with  friends  of 
ours  in  Ohio,  and  neither  of  them  had  ever  seen  a  saloon  cr  a 
drunken  man  till  they  were  married  and  started  East  on  their  wed- 
ding journey. 


22"^  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

Instead  of  filling  their  orders  as  made  np  by  their  good  wives,  the 
proceeds  went  to  the  saloons,  and  it  was  often  the  case  that  the  mer- 
chant had  to  advance  them  money  to  get  some  of  the  most  necessary 
articles  to  take  home.  Now  things  are  changed.  These  same  cus- 
tomers never  think  of  trying  to  hunt  up  places  where  liquor  may  bo 
obtained,  but  sell  what  they  have,  buy  and  pay  for  what  they  want 
to  take  home,  and  have  money  jingling  in  their  pockets  on  the  way 
home. 

No  !  These  merchants  and  thoir  customers  would  not  favor  a  re- 
turn  of  the  saloon. 

A    CIGAB    DBUMMEB 

from  Missouri,  says  when  he  strikes  Kansas,  coming  in  at  Atchison 
or  Leavenworth,  until  he  leaves  it  at  Galena,  near  Joplin,  Mo.,  he 
does  not  know  what  to  do  with  his  surplus  change,  and  he  is  over- 
loaded with  money  all  the  time  he  is  in  the  State.  Just  as  soon  as 
other  localities  are  reached  where  his  customers  expect  to  be  treated, 
his  spare  change  begins  to  lessen.  So  many  instances  might  be  cited 
in  favor  of  the  present  law,  and  the  great  and  good  thinking  people 
of  Kansas  could  not  be  induced  to  return  to  the  old  system  of  open 
saloons,  no  more  than  the  South  could  be  brought  back  to  the  idea 
of  slavery  again. 

THE   PEOPLE 

of  Kansas  do  not  want  resubmission.  They  are  satisfied  with 
the  present  law  until  it  can  be  amended  and  put  in  the  best  pos- 
sible form.  The  merchants  say  the  law  is  better  than  the  open 
saloon.  That  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  and  the  laborer  now  have 
more  money,  and  their  families  are  better  off  in  every  respect  than 
under  the  old  law,  is  not  to  be  denied. 

There  are  very  few  open  saloons  in  the  State.  There  are  places 
where  it  is  possible  to  get  beer  and  whiskey,  but  it  has  to  be  done 
in  such  a  roundabout  way  that  it  is  not  resorted  to  by  the  many  that 
otherwise  patronize  open  saloons. 

From  an  economic  standpoint,  the  Prohibitory  law  of  Kansas  is 
one  of  the  greatest  marvels  of  the  age. 

The  following  statement  was  signed  by  one  hundred 
and  fifty-three  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  Kansas 
— men  thoroughly  representing  the  wealth,  intelligence, 


KANSAS.  223 

and  professional,  commercial,  and  religious  intoreste  of 

the  State  :* 

"  We,  the  nndersigned,  citizens  of  Kansas  and  familiar  with  tho 
operation  of  the  laws  prohibiting  the  truflio  in  intoxicating  liqaorit, 
declare  that  Prohibition  has  been  a  moral  and  FINANCIAL  BENE- 
FIT to  Kansas.  Thtse  laws  are  as  well  enforced,  and  in  many  per. 
tions  of  the  State  even  better  enforced  than  other  criminul  laws. 
There  has  been  an  enormous  decrease  iu  the  consumption  of  liquors 
and  in  the  amount  of  drunkenness.  During  tho  eight  years  since 
Prohibition  was  enacted  our  population  has  greatly  increased,  BUSI- 
NESS HAS  PROSPERED,  poverty  and  crime  have  diminished,  and 
the  open  saloon  has  disappeared.  A  very  smuU  per  cent,  of  our 
people  are  opposed  to  this  policy.  The  great  majority  of  the  citizens 
of  Kansas  are  well  satisfied  with  the  results  of  Prohibition,  and  would 
not  on  any  account  think  of  returning  to  our  former  system  of 
license. " 

Among  the  signers  the  following  names  appear  : 

Irwin  Taylor,  Assistant-Attomey-General  ;  W.  A.  Johnston,  Assj- 
ciate-Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  ;  D.  M.  Valentine,  Associate- 
Justice  ;  Lyman  U.  Humphrey,  Governor  of  Kansas  ;  Albert  H. 
Horton,  Chief  Justice  ;  E.  Wilder,  Treasurer,  R.  li.  Gemmell,  Super- 
intendent of  the  Telegraph,  A.  A.  Robinson,  Second  Vice-President 
and  Martager,  and  E.  B.  Purcell,  Director  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and 
Santa  Fe  Railroad  Company  ;  Peter  McVickar,  President  of  Wash- 
barn  College  ;  N.  C.  McFarland,  late  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office  ;  R.  B.  Spillman,  Judge  of  the  Twenty-first  District  ; 
George  T.  Fairchild,  President  of  the  State  Agricultural  College  ; 
N.  Green,  ex  Governor  of  Kansas  ;  John  A.  Martin,  ex-Goveruor  of 
Kansas  ;  J.  B.  Anderson,  President  of  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Manhattan  ;  John  F.  Hensley,  President  of  Emporia  College  ;  J.  W. 
X.  Ninde,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  ;  J.  C.  Miller, 
Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Winfield  ;  F.  J.  Sauerber,  Pastor 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Emporia  ;  Charles  B.  Graves,  Juilge 
of  the  Fifth  District  :  Henry  Booth,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  Department  Commander  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  ;  A.  R.  Taylor,  President  of  the  State  Normal  School  ;  John 


*  See  The  Voice  of  May  30th,  1889. 


•2U  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION'. 

S.  Park,  Pastor  of  tho  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Wamego  and 
Moderator  of  the  Synod  ;  J.  A.  Lippincott,  Chancellor  of  the  State 
University  ;  D.  C.  Milner,  Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Man- 
hattan ;  Z.  A.  Smith,  Editor  of  the  Leavenworth  Times ;  John  Cooper, 
Superintendent  of  the  City  Schools  of  Manhattan  ;  Robert  Crozier, 
Judge  of  the  District  Court,  Manhattan  ;  H.  F.  Sheldon,  Mayor  of 
Ottawa  ;  A.  Dobson,  President  of  the  Bank  of  Ottawa  ;  George  Suther- 
land, President  of  Ottawa  University  ;  M,  L.  Ward,  Professor  of  Mathfi- 
inatics  and  Political  Science  in  Ottawa  University  ;  P.  P.  Elder,  ex- 
Governor  of  Kansas  and  ex-Mayor  of  Ottawa  ;  Horace  J.  Smith,  Presi- 
dent of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Ottawa  and  Representative  from 
the  Sixteenth  District  ;  John  P.  Harris,  Preddent  of  the  People's 
National  Bank  of  Ottawa  and  late  State  Senator  ;  John  A.  Frow, 
Clerk  of  the  District  Court  of  Franklin  County  ;  George  T.  Anthony, 
Collector  and  ex-Governor  of  Kansas  ;  A.  W.  Benson,  Judge  of  the 
Fourth  Judicial  District  ;  J.  T.  Coplan,  Cashier  of  tho  First  National 
Bank*  of  Atchison  ;  D.  Martin,  ex- District  Judge  ;  George  Storch, 
President  of  the  United  States  National  Bank  of  Atchison  ;  Henry 
Elliston,  State  Senator  ;  T.  M.  Pierce,  County  Attorney  of  Johnson 
County,  Olathe  ;  William  R,  Smith,  City  Attorney  of  Atchison  ;  Frank 
Boyse,  Chairman  of  the  Democratic  County  Central  Committee 
(county  not  stated)  ;  Noble  L.  Prentis,  formerly  Editor  of  the  Atchi- 
son Champion;  D.  R.  Anthony,  formerly  Editor  of  the  Leavenworth 
Times ;  J.  F.  Tufts,  Assistant  Attorney-General  for  Atchison  County 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Prohibitory  law,  from  August,  1886,  to 
January,  1889  ;  C,  O.  French,  Judge  of  the  Sixth  District  ;  W.  M. 
Rice,  Representative  fr)m  the  Twenty-second  District  ;  A.  H.  Sar- 
gent, Police  Judge  of  Fort  Scott  ;  A.  G.  Robb,  Presiding  Elder,  Fort 
Scott ;  J.  A.  Hyden,  Presiding  Elder,  Independence  District ;  H.  VV. 
Chaffee,  Presiding  Elder,  Ottawa  District ;  B  Kelly,  Presiding  Elder, 
Emporia  District  ;  J.  A.  Motter,  Presiding  Elder,  Leavenworth  Dis- 
trict ;  8,  E.  Pendleton,  Presiding  Elder,  Atchison  District  ;  J.  R. 
Madison,  Presiding  Elder,  Marysville  District ;  G.  S.  Dearborn, 
Presiding  Elder,  Topeka  District  ;  A.  B.  Embree,  Presiding  Elder, 
Manhattan  District ;  H.  A.  Gobin,  President  of  Baker  University  ; 
George  T.  Thompson,  Editor  of  the  Manhattan  Naiionnlist ;  G.  A. 
Atwood,  Editor  of  the  Manhattan  Republican;  A.  Schuyler,  W.  B. 
Johnson,  F.  A.  Cook,  and  J.  C.  B.  Scott,  Professors  in  Kansas  Wes- 
leyan  University  ;  J.  H.  Lockwood,  Presiding  Elder,  Salina  District  ; 
Thomas  Anderson,  ex  State  Senator  ;  R.  H.  Bishop,  Justioe  of  the 
Peace  for  eighteen  years,  etc. 


KANSAS.  220 

Mr.  L.  A.  Maynard,  of  the  New  York  Observer^  who 
made  a  special  tour  througli  Kansas  for  the  study  of 
Prohibition,  has  recorded  his  observations  in  a  very 
calm,  complete,  and,  withal,  readable  pamphlet  entitled 
*'  The  Truth  About  Kansas."  He  shows  that  the  Pro- 
hibitory law  has  injured  certain  kinds  of  business.  For 
instance,  he  says  :* 

"  The  police  judge  at  Fort  Scott  was  one  of  those  who  thought  the 
law  had  injured  business.  It  certainly  lias  injured  his  business,  for 
the  records  show  that  in  1874,  when  Fort  Scott  had  almost  one-third 
of  its  present  population,  the  office  of  police  judge  was  worth  $2,400 
a  year.  Now  it  is  worth  only  $800,  and  the  amount  is  growing 
smaller  every  year.  The  same  loss  has  been  experienced  in  the 
police  business  all  over  Kansas.  I  was  told  of  a  man  at  Topeka  en- 
gaged in  the  manufaclure  of  steel  cells,  for  juils,  who  says  that  /tw  btisi- 
ness  has  been  ruined  ia  Kansas,  and  he  is  going  to  '  move  out.*  I 
also  saw  in  the  Labor  Commissioner  s  office  at  Topeka  a  complaint 
from  a  barrel  manufncturer  that  the  demand  for  barrels  had  'faUen  off 
terribly '  since  the  coming  of  Prohibition.  Such  '  losses '  as  these, 
I  believe,  are  the  only  ones  that  Kansas  has  actually  sustained  as  the 
result  of  Prohibition." 

On  the  other  hand,  he  says  : 

"The  men  who  make  complaint  about  the  loss  of  revenue  from 
the  liquor-shops  are  too  short-sighted  and  narrow-minded  to  see  that 
the  loss  is  being  made  up  to  them  many  times  over  by  a  decrease  in 
expenditures  for  police  regulation,  for  the  care  and  punishment  of 
criminals,  and  by  the  increase  of  thrift  and  economy  among  the 
laboring  classes,  and  by  the  sounder  and  healthier  tone  of  all 
branches  of  business.  Tradesmen  generally  have  a  better  trade  than 
they  had  in  saloon  days,  and  their  bills  are  paid  more  promptly. 
This  is  the  universal  testimony. " 

Of  this  he  gives  such  instances  as  the  following  : 

A    RAILBOAD    MAN* 8  VIEWS. 

Mr.  E.  B.  Puroell,  a  Director  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa 


*  "  Truth  About  Kansas,"  page  24. 


226  ECON"OMICS    OF    PROIUBITIOX. 

Fe  Railroad,   and   one  of  the  leading  business  men  of  the  State, 
says  : 

•*  In  ray  opinion  the  Prohibitory  law  of  the  State  has  been  a  great 
success  from  a  business  point  of  view.' .  .  .  I  know  personally  of  num- 
bers of  men  in  the  neighborhood  of  my  own  town  who  before  the  Pro- 
hibitory law  went  into  effect  were  squandering  their  earnings  on 
drink,  and  who  but  for  Prohibition  would  be  to-day,  I  believe,  with- 
out a  home  or  a  dollar  in  the  world.  But  these  men  are  now  sober 
and  industrious  and  have  comfortable  homes.  I  believe  that  rail- 
road men  in  this  State  generally  share  my  views  as  to  the  success  of 
the  law.  I  have  heard  many  express  the  same  opinion.  The  amount 
of  liquor  brought  into  the  State  under  the  present  law  and  the 
amount  of  money  sent  out  are  grossly  exaggerated.  I  do  not  believe 
it  is  one-tenth  of  what  it  was  before  Prohibition." 

VIEWS   OF   STATE   COMMISSIONEB   OF   LABOB   STATISTICS. 

I  found  Mr.  Fnmk  H.  Betton,  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  and  Industrial  Statistics,  at  his  desk  in  the  capitol  building 
at  Topeka.  He  said,  in  substance,  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  the 
Prohibitory  law  had  been  highly  beneficial  to  the  laboring  classes  in 
the  State.  His  investigations  and  his  personal  observ^ations  con- 
firmed him  in  that  view.  More  men  were  earning  their  own  homes 
now  than  ever  before.  The  workingmen  were  better  clothed  and 
better  fed.  They  do  better  on  the  same  wages  here  than  they  do  in 
towns  where  liquor  is  openly  sold, 

IDEAS   OF   AN    EDUOATOB. 

Professor  D.  Bemiss,  Superintendent  of  City  Schools  at  Fort 
Soott,-  said  : 

"  I  am  certain  that  the  Prohibitory  law  has  been  helpful  to  the 
cause  of  education  in  Kansas.  We  have  very  few  children  kept  from 
school  because  of  poverty  ;  very  few  require  aid  from  the  city  in  the 
shape  of  books  because  of  poverty.  I  am  certain,  also,  that  the  law 
is  influencing  the  character  of  recent  emigration  to  our  State.  I 
chose  this  State  myself  on  that  ground,  and  I  know  of  others  in  this 
region  who  have  come  here  for  a  similar  reason.  To  make  Prohibi* 
tion  perfectly  successful  hero  we  need  a  national  law  forbidding  the 
shipment  into  the  State  of  intoxicating  liquors.  This  is  our  chief 
difBcnlty." 


KANSAS.  227 

TTHAT   A   BANK   PRESIDENT   RATH. 

"  It  seems  to  me  the  sentiment  of  business  men  hero  is  fill  onA 
way  on  this  subject  of  Prohibition.  I  am  quite  certain  that  it  is 
here  in  Hutchinson.  The  law  has  been  a  help  to  us  in  every  way, 
morally  and  financially.  I  do  not  believe  you  could  find  a  citizen  of 
this  city  who  would  own  up  that  he  wanted  the  saloons  back  here 
again.  We  closed  the  saloons  in  Hutchinson  before  the  Prohibitory 
law  went  into  efifect.  1  have  a  hoy  twelve  years  old  who  has  never  seen 
a  saloon.  You  might  be  in  town  six  months  and  never  see  a  man 
under  the  influence  of  liquor.  There  is  some  whiskey  brought  in 
here,  but  it  is  not  one-twentieth  part  of  what  would  be  here  if  it  was 
not  for  Prohibition.  The  amount  shipped  in  is  growing  less  all  the 
time.  The  liquor  traffic  will  be  wiped  out  altogether  before  long." — 
President  of  First  National  Bank  of  Hutchinson. 

VARIOUS   OPINIONS. 

**  We  seem  to  have  got  rid  of  the  dead-beats  in  this  town  since  the 
Prohibitory  law  went  into  effect.  We  find  that  the  poorer  class  of 
people  pay  their  bills  more  promptly  than  they  used  to  in  saloon 
times.  We  could  give  you  the  names  of  men  who  spent  about  all 
their  wages  in  those  days  in  the  saloons,  but  who  are  now  paying  for 
their  own  homes  and  living  comfortably." — Manager  of  Topeka  Coal 
Company,  Topeka. 

"  I  can  see  a  great  difference  in  the  condition  of  the  poor  in  this 
city  since  the  Prohibitory  law  went  into  effect,  I  have  been  visiting 
among  the  poor  here  for  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  there  never  was  bo 
little  destitution  as  at  the  present  time,  although  our  city  is  three 
times  as  large  as  it  was  ten  years  ago.  I  note  a  great  change  in  the 
home  surroundings  of  the  men  who  formerly  drank.  They  live  in 
better  shape  and  their  children  are  better  clothed.  I  know  the  law 
has  been  a  great  blessing  to  this  city." — Mrs.  Has  Clark,  City  Mis. 
sumary  at  Fort  Scott. 

• '  I  can  see  a  marked  improvement  in  the  habits  of  railroad  men. 
They  do  not  drink  near  us  much  as  they  used  to,  and  their  morals 
are  better.  Prohibition,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  good  thing  for  ns  all, 
and  especially  for  labor." — Enilroad  Fireman. 

*'  Some  of  our  men  say  that  their  wages  go  a  great  deal  further 
here  in  Topeka  than  they  did  in  places  where  they  could  drop  into 
ihp  saloons  occaMonally.     They  cannot  afford  to  wnd  off  and  (?*t 


2:iS  EC02S"0MICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

liquor,  and  so  they  go  without  it.     We  do  not  have  any  trouble  with 
drunken  men  here." — Street  car  Starter  at  lopeka. 

Mr.  Maynard  gives,  from  a  personal  interview,  the 
following  : 

VIEWS   OF    GOVEBNOB   HUMPHBEY. 

"As  to  my  views  on  the  Prohibitory  law,  I  can  do  little  more  than 
to  reiterate  the  sentiments  which  I  expressed  in  my  recent  biennial 
message.  I  said  then,  and  I  repeat  it  now,  that  the  records  of  courts 
and  of  prisons,  from  the  city  '  calaboose  *  to  the  penitentiary,  show 
a  diminution  of  crime  and  a  falling  off  in  our  prison  population, 
bearing  the  most  incontestable  evidence  of  the  efficiency  of  the  pres- 
ent state  of  the  law  and  of  the  prohibitory  policy  which  the  law  is 
designed  to  enforce.  And  I  will  saj^  further,  at  this  time,  that,  in  my 
judgment,  if  the  question  of  Prohibition  was  now  resubmitted  to  the 
people  of  this  State,  it  would  be  carried  by  a  hundred  thousand 
majority.  The  law  is  as  well  enforced  as  any  other  law  upon  our 
statute-books.  It  does  not  entirely  prohibit  the  sale  of  intoxicants 
in  the  State  ;  neither  do  the  laws  against  stealing  and  other  crimes 
entirely  prohibit.  Considering  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the 
law  has  been  a  marvellous  success.  The  business  of  selling  intoxi- 
cating liquor  as  a  beverage  is  sinking  lower  and  lower  in  the  esti- 
mation  of  the  people.  Drunkenness  is  fast  becoming  an  unknown 
vice  with  us.  I  have  noted  the  fact  that  at  political  conventions  and 
other  large  gatherings,  which  I  have  attended  in  this  State  in  the 
past  two  years,  an  intoxicated  man  is  an  extremely  rare  sight.  At  a 
soldiers'  reunion,  which  I  attended  last  year,  lasting  three  days,  / 
did  not  see  one  man  under  the  injluence  of  drink.  The  office  of  police 
judge  in  our  towns  and  cities  is  becoming  a  mere  sinecure.  The 
business  of  the  criminal  courts  is  falling  off  every  day." 

AN    IMPORTANT    DOCUMENT. 

Disinterested  Testimony — Prohibition  as  a  Financial 

Benefit. 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  annual  report  of 
Stockholders'  Committee  of  the  Farmers'  Loan  and 
Trust  Company,  of  Kansas.     It  pays  a  most  remarkable 


KANSAS.  g89 

tribute  to  Prohibition  as  a  financial  benefit  to  a  State. 
The  men  who  sign  this  document  are  all  residents  of 
Boston^  and  they  have  no  personal  interest  in  making 
the  statement  they  do  except  that  they  can  make  more 
money  out  of  loans  in  a  Prohibition  State  than  under 
license  : 

**  Believing  it  to  be  a  matter  of  financial  interest  and  otherwise  to 
our  stockholders,  we  digress  somewhat  to  treat  upon  a  question 
which  has  been  and  is  agitating  the  moral,  social,  religions,  and 
political  welfare  of  all  sections  of  our  common  country.  We  have 
no  motive  other  than  to  apply  the  deductions  therefrom  obtained  to 
the  value  of  your  Kansas  investment. 

"  Noting  the  practical.effect  of  Prohibition  upon  the  people  of  the 
State,  our  observations  lead  us  to  believe  that  this  movement  is  a 
grand  success  in  Kansas,  which  adds,  and  will  continue  to  add,  value 
to  all  the  lands  in  the  State. 

"  Whatever  makes  human  existence  less  burdensome,  reduces 
taxation,  prevents  crime,  and  destroys  pauperism,  is  sure  to  give 
tangible  and  material  wealth  to  any  State.  From  a  personal  inter> 
view  with  General  S.  B.  Bradford,  Attorney  General  of  the  State,  we 
have  learned  the  following  startling  facts  regarding  the  beneficial 
effects  of  Prohibition  : 

"  In  Atchison  County,  in  1885,  23  persons  were  sent  to  the  peni> 
tentiary  for  crimes.  In  January,  in  1886,  all  the  saloons  in  that 
county,  60  in  number,  were  closed.  During  1886  the  number  of 
persons  sent  to  the  penitentiary  was  but  13  ;  in  1887  bat  6,  and  in 
the  first  half  of  1888  but  1  person. 

''  In  Leavenworth  County  the  saloons  were  closed  in  March,  1887. 
In  1886  there  were  36  persons  sent  to  the  penitentiary  ;  in  1887,  13. 
and  during  the  first  half  of  1888,  5. 

"  In  Ford  County,  including  Bodge  City,  the  saloons  were  doted 
in  the  fall  of  1886.  In  1886  14  persons  were  sent  to  the  peniten- 
tiary ;  in  1887,  6,  and  during  the  first  half  of  1888,  2. 


230  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

**  There  are  at  present  104  less  persons  in  the  penitentiary  than 
one  year  ago.     The  jails  of  the  State  are  practically  empty. 

"  The  average  of  convicts  is  one-third  less  than  four  years  ago. 

"  In  four  years  of  Prohibition,  grand  larceny  has  decreased  15  per 
cent.,  and  crimes  against  persons  have  decreased  25  per  cent. 

"  There  is  today  one  pauper  to  every  1,350  persons.  In  1880,  the 
lost  year  of  the  dram  shop  act,  there  was  one  pauper  to  every  750 
persons.  There  is  not  a  barrel  of  bonded  liquor  in  the  State,  and 
there  is  not  a  distillery  in  the  State. 

"  We  look  upon    the   above    facts,  vouched   tor  by  such  high 

AUTHOBTTY,   AS    A    STRONG    ARGUMENT    IN    FAVOR    OF  LOANS    IN    A  StATE  AD- 
VANCINO   SO   RAPIDLY   IN   MORAL   AS   WELL   AS   MATERIAL   PROGRESS.    .    .    . 

"  All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

"  Levi  S.  Gould, 
"  F.  G.  HoBsoN, 
**A.  C.  Goss, 
"  Q.  E.  Rankin, 
"  Stockholders'  Committee." 

The  following  testimony  is  from  the  Western  Baptist 
of  Topeka,  Kan.,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  has  never 
been  challenged  : 

NO  SALOONS. 

Topeka  has  more  churches  than  any  city  of  the  same  size  in  the 
country.  It  has  not  a  single  saloon  or  drinkingplace,  and  probably 
this  cannot  be  said  of  any  other  city  in  the  Union  having  as  large  a 
population.  Four  years  ago  there  were  one  hundred  and  forty 
saloons  in  the  city,  doing  a  flourishing  business.  It  was  claimed 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  clean  them  out  entirely  ;  but  a  crusade 
was  inaugurated  against  them  by  the  county  officials,  which  in  less 
than  a  year  closed  every  drinking-place  in  the  city.  Before  the 
whiskey  element  became  convinced  that  the  law  would  be  enforced, 
over  $25,000  in  fines  were  collected  from  saloon-keepers  for  violation 
of  the  Prohibitory  law,  and  more  than  thirty  of  them  served  out  sen- 
tences in  the  county  jail.  It  is  now  absolutely  impossible  to  buy  a 
drop  of  liquor  in  Topekn,  as  a  beverage.     There  has  been  a  very 


KANSAS.  $81 

noticeable  dccreftso  in  the  amount  of  crirao  since  the  law  went  into 
efifect  ;  though  the  city  has  doubled  in  population,  the  number  of 
arrests  by  the  police  in  not  as  great  as  when  the  saloons  were  open. 
Persons  who  violently  opposed  the  Prohibitory  law  now  admit  that 
it  has  been  a  blessing  to  the  city  of  Topeka.  Speaking  of  the  closing 
of  the  saloons,  County  Attorney  Curtis  said  :  **  At  one  time  there 
were  one  hundred  and  forty  saloons  open  in  Topeka  ;  their  average 
sales  per  day  were  not  less  than  $30  each,  which  would  make  $4,200 
spent  daily  for  liquor.  This  amount  came  largely  from  the  working 
people.  To-day  not  one  dollar  of  that  amount  is  spent  for  whiskey. 
Where  does  it  go  to  V  It  goes  for  food  and  clothing  for  the  wife  and 
children.  1  know  of  scores  of  instances  where  families  were  suffer- 
ing for  food  because  the  father  gave  his  wages  to  the  saloon-keeper. 
Now  they  are  living  in  a  cosey  home  of  their  own  ;  they  have  all  the 
necessities  of  life,  and,  indeed,  a  few  of  the  luxuries ;  the  children,  who 
were  once  poverty  stricken  and  living  in  rags,  are  now  attending  the 
public  school,  and  the  father  will  tell  you  hejs  the  happiest  man  in 
the  State,  and  that  Prohibition  rescued  him." 

With  such  facts  before  him,  the  true  economist  would 
smooth  such  a  traffic's  way  to  oblivion  and  multiply  the 
motive-power.  Crowd  all  steam  upon  Prohibition  and 
lay  a  broad  track  for  it  wherever  humanity  dwells.  Let 
the  business  of  the  police  judge,  the  steel- cell  manufac- 
turer, and  the  barrel-maker  decline,  and  that  of  the 
grocer,  the  clothing  dealer,  the  educator,  and  the  house- 
builder  advance,  till  ours  shall  become  a  nation  of  homes 
over  which  the  saloon's  baleful  shadow  shall  fall  never- 
more ! 


CHAPTER  XY. 

IOWA. 

**  Four-fifths  of  this  State  is  without  a  saloon.  Not  a  distillery  is 
left  in  the  State  and  not  to  exceed  a  dozen  breweries  are  left.  Boot- 
legging is  confined  to  the  lowest  criminal  tramp  element.  Seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  our  jails  are  without  a  prisoner.  Grand  juries  are 
without  business.  Criminal  expenses  are  greatly  reduced.  Bank 
deposits  have  largely  increased.  Lawyers  are  without  practice. 
Politicians  are  no  longer  fearful  about  examining  the  question. 
Popular  opinion  is  growing  stronger  day  by  day  in  favor  of  the  law. 
These  things  are  attested  by  the  Iowa  ministers,  teachers,  Governor, 
State  ofl&cials,  three  fourths  of  the  editors,  and  a  myriad  of  other 
witnesses." — President  B.  F.  Wright,  of  Iowa  State  Temperance  Alliance. 

The  people  of  Iowa  passed  a  Constitutional  Prohibi- 
tory Amendment  on  June  27tli,  1882.  ^*  The  vote  on 
the  amendment  in  the  State  was  :  For  it,  155,436  ; 
against  it,  125,677  ;  majority  in  favor,  29,759.  In  this 
vote  46,000  more  ballots  were  cast  than  in  the  general 
election  for  Governor,  in  1881.*  .  .  .  But  a  sad  reverse 
came  upon  the  friends  of  the  Prohibitory  Amendment, 
and  it  was  lost  on  account  of  clerical  errors  in  the  Legis- 
lature passing  it."  This  caused  it  to  bo  set  aside  by  the 
Supreme  Court.  This  has  been  a  source  of  weakness  to 
the  present  time,  the  law  not  established  in  the  Constitu- 
tion being  largely  the  foot-ball  of  conflicting  parties,  liable 
to  be  repealed  by  any  legislature. 


*  See  '*  Liquor  Problem  in  All  Agen,"  pp.  420-22.     A  thrilling  nar- 
ralivo. 


IOWA.  ;m 

A  Prohibitory  law  was  passed  by  the  Legislature,  and 
went  into  effect  July  4th,  1884. 

Of  the  effect  of  this  law,  after  three  years'  trial,  Gov- 
ernor Larrabee  testifies  as  follows  in  a  letter  published 
in  the  Keosauqua  Republican^  and  sent  direct  to  the 
author  of  these  pages  from  the  Executive  Oflice  : 

A  LETTER   FROM  GOVERNOR  LARRABEE. 

ExxcuTivE  Office,  Dbs  Moinbs,  Ia.,  Jane  30,  1887. 

Messrs.  Sloan  db  Rowley,  Keosauqua^  la. 

Dear  Sirs  :  Your  letter  of  the  28th  inst.,  reqaesting  certain  infor- 
mation relative  to  the  Prohibitory  law  of  this  State  and  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  enforced  has  been  received. 

In  reply  I  have  to  say  that  our  Prohibitory  law  is  being  enforced 
in  eighty-five  of  the  ninety-nine  counties  of  the  Stale,  as  well  an  the 
laws  against  other  crimes,  all  malicious  reports  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. In  the  fourteeen  remaining  counties,  situated  prin. 
cipally  along  the  Mississippi  and  containing  large  towns  abounding  in 
foreign  population,  the  law  is  but  partially  enforced,  and  in  a  few 
instances  is  even  defiantly  violated.  These  places  are,  however, 
gradually  yielding  to  a  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  general  enforce- 
ment, which  is  rapidly  growing  even  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State. 

Prohibition  has  certainly  not  injured  any  business  interest  except 
that  of  the  saloon-keeper,  nor  has  it  driven  any  good  citizens  from 
our  borders.  It  is  true  we  have  lost  since  the  adoption  of  the  Pro- 
hibitory law  several  thousand  incurable  vendors  of  liquor  and  perhaps 
a  few  hundred  incurable  topers,  but  we  have  every  reason  to  con* 
gratnlate  ourselves  upon  such  a  loss.  Hon.  G.  W.  Ruddick,  Judge 
of  the  Twelfth  Judicial  District  and  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  jadges 
of.  the  Stale,  in  an  official  report,  dated  June  11th,  1887,  makes  the 
following  statement  :  '*  The  jails  in  this  district  are  now  idle,  and  in 
eight  terms  of  court  held  by  me  since  January  Ist  there  has  been  but 
one  indictment  presented,  and  I  think  the  grand  juries  hare  been 
reasonably  diligent.  Much  of  the  criminal  element  has  certainly 
emigrated." 

Hon.  John  W.  Harvey,  Judge  of  the  Third  Judicial  District  of  Ihiii 
State,  also  makes  an  interesting  statement  oonoenMag  the  indaano* 


3^ 


Of  TRK 


^34  ECONOMICS    or    PROHIBITION. 

of  Prohibition  on  crime.  He  has  been  judge  four  years  and  a  half. 
In  1883  he  sentenced  31  persons  to  the  penitentiary  ;  in  1884,  23  ; 
in  1885,  20  ;  in  1886,  14,  and  during  the  first  six  months  of  1887,  3. 
These  were  divided  among  counties  as  follows  :  Decatur,  9  ;  Ring- 
gold, 6  ;  Taylor,  8  ;  Page,  11  ;  Montgomery,  28  ;  Adams,  2  ;  Union, 
20  ;  Clarke,  6  ;  Wayne,  1.  The  latter  county  has  been  in  the  district 
only  since  January,  Judge  Harvey  says  :  "I  am  frequently  asked 
•what  is  the  cause  of  this  decrease  in  crime  during  the  last  four  years. 
My  answer  is,  the  enforcement  of  the  Prohibitory  liquor  law.  And 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  above  figures  prove  this  beyond  a  doubt. 
The  first  year  1  was  on  the  bench  the  saloons  were  running  ;  the 
second  and  third  years  they  were  running  in  some  localities  ;  but  the 
fourth  year  I  do  not  believe  there  was  a  saloon  in  the  district.  I  am 
satisfied  that  there  was  not  an  open  saloon.  Eed  Oak,  in  Mont- 
gomery County,  and  Creston,  in  Union  County,  were  the  last  places 
in  the  district  to  give  up  the  saloons,  and  the  record  from  these  two 
counties  shows  the  result.  The  result  from  these  counties  is  not 
because  they  have  a  larger  population  than  the  other  counties  of  the 
district.  Page  has  a  much  larger  population  than  either  of  these 
counties.  In  the  <50untie3  where  the  law  has  been  best  enforced 
there  has  been  the  least  crime.  During  the  last  year  it  has  not  been 
an  uncommon  thing,  as  in  this  county  (Decatur)  at  the  last  term, 
for  the  grand  jury  to  adjourn  without  finding  an  indictment. 

"  At  first,  under  the  present  pharmacy  law,  some  of  the  druggists 
were  disposed  to  take  advantage  and  abuse  the  trust  imposed  in 
them,  but  a  number  of  convictions  and  fines  and  the  revocation  of  a 
number  of  pharmacy  permits  by  the  Pharmacy  Board,  has  had  a 
wholesome  efllect,  and  I  believe  that  a  great  majority  of  the  drug 
gists  in  this  district  are  now  disposed  to  obey  the  law." 

Hon.  William  P.  Wolf,  of  Tipton,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
lientatives  in  the  Twentieth  General  Assembly,  writes  as  follows  con- 
cerning the  progress  of  Prohibition  in  his  county  :  "  When  open 
saloon.s  were  running  in  Tipton,  breaches  of  peace  and  other  crimes 
were  much  more  frequent  than  now.  The  records  of  the  courts  will 
show  that  aside  from  the  prosecutions  for  violation  of  the  liquor 
law,  prosecutions  in  Cedar  County  for  other  crimes  have  fallen  off 
more  than  sixty  per  cent,  from  what  they  were  when  saloons  were 
running,  for  the  reaHon  that  crimes  are  less  frequent.  It  is  no  argu- 
ment that  the  law  in  some  cases  is  evaded  and  secretly  violated.  The 
traffic  in  Tipton  is  driven  into  the  dark,  and  the  liquor  law  is  not 
violated  there  of tener  than  the  law  against  theft.     Where  the  ollicers 


IOWA.  230 

have  enforced  the  law  the  feeling  in  its  favor  is  certainly  fttroDger 
than  ever,  many  who  had  opposed  it  being  now  opposed  to  its  le- 
peal.  It  is  much  stronger  in  the  State  than  when  it  was  passed, 
because  enforcement  has  taken  away  many  arguments  before  need 
against  it.  If  submitted  to  day  as  a  non-partisan  question,  it  would 
carry  by  a  much  larger  majority  than  before,  and  its  strength  must 
increase. " 

As  regards  the  internal  revenue  of  a  State,  it  is  no  indication  what- 
ever of  the  amouut  of  liquor  consumed  in  that  State,  for  the  tax  on 
liquors  is  paid  by  the  manufacturer,  and  not  by  the  oonsomer.  For 
several  years  one  of  the  largest  distilleries  in  the  country  was  in 
operation  here  manufacturing  for  export  only.  From  that  institu- 
tion alone  was  collected  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  internal  rev- 
enue of  Iowa,  It  has  long  been  a  disputed  question  whether  this 
distillery  could  be  operated  under  the  Prohibitory  law,  and  about 
three  months  ago,  on  a  final  test  in  the  district  court,  it  was  ordered 
closed. 

It  is  true,  both  shooting  and  murder  have  occurred  under  the  Pro- 
hibitory law.  A  minister  at  Sioux  City  and  a  constable  at  Des  Moines 
were  killed  in  the  attempt  to  enforce  the  law,  but  these  crimes  were 
in  both  instances  committed  by  those  who  had  always  defied  the  law. 

It  would  be  useless  to  undertake  the  task  of  contradicting  all  the 
false  reports  put  in  circulation  by  unscrupulous  men.  Ofiicers  may, 
in  a  few  instances,  have  shown  a  lack  of  discretion  in  the  performance 
of  their  official  duties,  but  this  in  the  minds  of  candid  men  will  not 
affect  the  merit  of  the  law.  The  law  is  steadily  gaining  in  publio 
favor,  and  Prohibition  is  beyond  doubt  the  settled  policy  of  Iowa. 
Could  the  Prohibitory  Iaw  at  the  present  time  be  submitted  to  our 
people  for  their  ratification,  I  am  confident  it  would  be  endorsed  by 
a  majority  of  from  sixty  to  eighty  thousand  votes 

Very  respectfully, 

W1LXJA.M  LxRBABXX. 

Governor  Larrabee's  letter  is  so  compact  that  it  will 
be  well  to  call  special  attention  to  the  most  important 
points.  In  regard  to  the  alleged  non-enforcement,  the 
Governor  says  : 

**Tho  Prohibitory  law  is  being  enforced  in  eighty-five  of  the 
ninety-nine  counties  of  the 'State,  as  well  as  the  laws  against  other 
crimes,  all  malicious  reports  to  the  coutmry  notwithstuuding.     In 


^36  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION'. 

the  fourteen  remaining  counties,  situated  principally  along  th6  Mis- 
sissippi and  containing  large  towns  abounding  in  foreign  population, 
the  law  is  but  partially  enforced,  and  in  a  few  instances  is  even 
defiantly  violated.  These  places  are,  however,  gradually  yielding  to 
a  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  general  enforcement,  which  is  rapidly 
growing  even  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State." 

There  is  the  process.  The  law  puts  these  large  towns 
practicallj  in  a  state  of  siege,  with  enforced  Prohibition 
all  around  them,  constant  information  of  its  benefits 
coming  from  better  governed  counties  within  the  State, 
which  force  conviction  on  business  men  and  win  their 
confidence,  thus  creating  a  steadily  rising  public  senti- 
ment within  the  cities,  out  of  which  enforcement  at 
length  will  come. 

Since  Governor  Larrabee's  letter  was  written  Sioux 
City,  where  the  martyred  Haddock  fell,  has  wheeled 
into  line,  with  closed  saloons  and  the  great  Arensdorf 
Brewery  converted  into  an  oatmeal  factory.  It  is  some- 
times said  that  the  advocates  of  Prohibition  are  not  will- 
ing to  take  anything  unless  they  can  get  all.  They  were 
willing  to  take  eighty-five  of  the  ninety-nine  counties  of 
Iowa  and  wait  and  work  for  the  other  fourteen,  and  they 
are  going  to  take  them  before  long. 

As  to  the  general  effect  upon  the  State,  the  Governor 


"  Prohibition  has  certainly  not  injured  any  business  interest  ex- 
cei)t  that  of  the  saloon-keeper,  nor  has  it  driven  any  good  citizen 
from  our  borders.  It  is  true  we  have  lost  since  the  adoption  of  the 
Prohibitory  law  several  thousand  incurable  vendors  of  liquor  and 
perhaps  a  few  hundred  incurable  topers.  But  we  have  every  reason 
to  congratulate  ourselves  upon  such  a  loss." 

Is  there  any  other  State  that  would  care  to  take  this 
consignment  of  exiles  and  consider  it  an  element  of  pros- 
perity ? 


IOWA.  !^7 

As  to  the  effect  on  crime,  Governor  Larrabee  quoten 
Judge  Ruddick,  of  the  Twelfth  Judicial  DiBtrict,  ba 
follows  ; 

*'  The  jails  in  this  district  are  now  idle,  and  in  eight  terms  of  conrt 
held  by  me  since  January  Ist  there  has  been  but  one  indictment  pre- 
sented, and  I  think  the  grand  juries  have  been  reasonably  diligent. 
Much  of  the  criminal  element  has  certainly  emigrated." 

From  Speaker  Wolf,  of  Tipton,  he  quotes  the  follow- 
ing ; 

••"When  open  saloons  were  running  in  Tipton,  breaches  of  the 
peace  and  other  crimes  were  much  more  frequent  than  now.  The 
records  of  the  courts  will  show  that,  aside  from  prosecutions  for 
Tiolations  of  the  liquor  law,  prosecutions  in  Cedar  County  for  other 
crimes  have  fallen  ofiE  more  than  sixty  per  cent,  from  what  they  were 
when  the  saloons  were  running,  for  the  reason  that  crimes  are  less 
frequent.  It  is  no  argument  that  the  law  in  some  cases  is  evaded 
and  secretly  violated.  The  traflSc  in  Tipton  is  driven  into  the  dark, 
and  the  liquor  law  is  not  violated  there  oftener  than  the  law  against 
theft.  "Where  the  officers  have  enforced  the  law,  the  feeling  in  its 
favor  is  certainly  stronger  than  ever,  many  who  were  opposed  to  the 
law  being  now  opposed  to  its  repeal," 

With  all  which  the  Governor's  concluding  sentence 
heartily  agrees  : 

"  The  law  is  steadily  gaining  in  public  favor,  and  Prohibition  is 
beyond  doubt  the  settled  policy  of  Iowa.  Could  the  Prohibitory 
law  at  the  present  time  be  submitted  to  our  people  for  their  ratifica- 
tion, I  am  confident  it  would  be  endorsed  by  a  majority  of  from  sixty 
to  eighty  thousand  votes,  ' ' 

This  was  in  1887.  Have  not  two  years*  more  experi- 
ence spoiled  it  all  ?  Let  us  see.  Jnst  before  the  last  ses- 
sion of  the  Legislature,  in  1888,  the  district  judges  of 
the  State  wrote  to  Governor  Larrabee,  and  out  of  twenty- 
four  all  but  three  declared  that  crime  and  drunkenness 
had  been  decreased  to  a  great  extent,  and  they  would 


238  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

oppose  any  attempt  to  substitute  a  High  License  and 
Local  Option  law.  Several  of  the  judges  opposed  Pro- 
hibition when  it  was  first  enacted,  but  the  beneficial 
results  apparent  from  it  caused  them  to  change  their 
minds. 

Judge  Harvey,  of  the  Third  District,  writes  : 

"  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  a  saloon  in  the  district.  Prohibi- 
tion has  reduced  crime  at  least  one-half  and  the  criminal  expenses  in 
like  ratio." 

Judge  Lewis,  of  the  Fourth  District,  testifies  : 

"  The  law  is  as  \i'ell  enforced  as  any  other,  and  has  decreased 
criminal  expenses  at  least  two-thirds.'* 

Judge  Wakefield,  also  of  the  Fourth  District,  writes  : 

"  I  am  satisfied  that  our  city  (Sioux  City,  so  long  contested),  hav- 
ing during  the  past  year  enjoyed  a  season  of  great  prosperity  and 
growth,  has  aided  materially  in  the  change  of  affairs  here.  As  the 
saloons  were  driven  out  other  business  came  into  occupy  the  vacant  places.'* 

Judge  Granger,  of  the  Thirteenth  District,  writes  : 

"  The  closing  of  the  front  door  of  the  saloon,  whereby  it  is  de- 
stroyed as  a  place  of  social  resort,  has  cancelled  nine -tenths  of  the 
drunkenness." 

Yes,  certain  inveterate  topers  and  stray  drummers  will 
**get  whiskey"  anywhere,  even  by  the  most  degrading 
means.  But  the  better  class  of  men  will  not  drink  un- 
less they  are  sustained  by  a  considerable  public  opinion, 
by  custom,  and  by  the  presence  of  many  whom  they  re- 
spect and  like.  Prohibition  saves  all  the  best  and  most 
hopeful  among  the  endangered  classes.  To  *'  destroy 
the  i?aloon  as  a  place  of  social  resort"  is  a  great  thing  to 
do.     Its  complete  extermination  is  then  not  far  away. 

Wo  are  able  to  quote  a  still  later  letter  from  Governor 
Larrabee,  dated  February  6th,  1889,  in  which  he  says  : 


IOWA.  yad 

*'  The  Prohibitory  law  of  Iowa  has  much  more  than  anawereU  the  ex- 
pectations of  its  former  most  hopeful  advocates.  .  .  .  There  haa  been 
a  steady  growth  in  our  population,  and  the  census  of  1890  will  prob- 
ably .show  in  Iowa  at  leHst  2,000,000  inhabitants.  The  Tote  at  the 
last  election  showed  an  increase  of  65,32'.)  votes  over  the  Presidential 
election  of  1884— a  larger  increase  than  the  election  of  1884  showed 
over  that  of  1880. 

THE  BANKING   BUSINESS 

of  a  State  is,  perhaps,  as  fair  a  barometer  of  business  as  can  be 
found.  The  number  of  banks  in  the  State  has  increased  from  186,  in 
1883,  to  244,  in  1888  ;  deposits  have  increased  from  |27,231,719.74  to 
$89,935,362.68.  in  1888. 

'*  I  think  more  than  half  of  the  jails  in  the  State  are  empty  at  the 
present  time.  There  are  ninety-eight  less  convicts  in  our  peniten- 
tiaries than  there  were  three  years  ago,  notwithstanding  the  growth 
of  the  population. 

"  Tramps  are  very  scarce  in  Iowa.  There  are  evidently  few  attrac- 
tions for  them  here.  Probably  more  than  three  thousand  of  their 
recruiting  stations  have  been  closed  in  Iowa  during  the  past  five  years. 

IKE  WIVES   AND   MOTHEB8 

of  the  State,  and  especially  those  of  small  means,  are  almost  unani- 
mously in  favor  of  the  law.  The  famiUes  of  laboring  men  now  receive 
the  benejUs  of  the  earnings  thai  formerly  loent  to  the  saloons" 

That  is  the  real  trouble.  That  is  why  the  law  is  hated, 
and  a  stupendous  effort  made  to  overthrow  it.  Why 
should  these  **  wives  and  mothers" — these  **  families  of 
laboring  men" — be  spending  the  money  on  which  the 
saloon  elsewhere  has  a  perennial  mortgage  ?  These 
$39,000,000  in  banks,  too,  which  might  be  in  breweries 
and  distilleries  ! 

But  from  the  point  of  view  of  human  happiness  and 
welfare,  the  testimony  is  all  one  way.  From  The  Voice 
of  June  6th,  1889,  we  are  permitted  to  take  the  follow- 
ing table,  which,  as  in  previous  cases,  we  give  in  two 
sections,  on  account  of  space  : 


^40 


ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 


l-H 


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ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 


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244 


ECOXOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 


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246 


ECONOMICS    OF    TKOIIIRITION". 


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248  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

The  above  replies  from  the  county  attorneys  of  Iowa, 
covering  fifty-eight  of  the  ninety-nine  counties  of  that 
State,  have  been  received  by  The  Voice  in  answer  to  a 
series  of  questions  similar  to  those  which  elicited  the  re- 
markable letters  from  probate  judges  of  Kansas,  pub- 
lished in  The  Voice  of  May  23d.  In  this  instance,  as  in 
the  case  of  Kansas,  The  Voice  had  nc^  previous  knowl- 
edge of  the  political  affiliation  or  views  on  Prohibition 
of  the  persons  addressed,  and  all  the  replies,  favorable 
and  unfavorable,  are  included  in  the  table.  The  same 
letter  accompanied  these  questions  as  was  sent  to  the 
judges  of  Kansas. 

While  the  replies  from  the  county  attorneys  of  Iowa 
do  not  exhibit  the  striking  unanimity  of  opinion  in  favor 
of  the  Prohibitory  law  as  did  the  answers  of  the  Kansas 
probate  judges,  they  nevertheless  show  that  Iowa's 
short  experiment  in  Prohibitory  legislation  is  regarded 
as  a  success.  All  over  the  State  drunkenness,  pauper- 
ism, and  crime  are  reported  to  be  greatly  diminished. 
Several  of  these  lawyers  who  formerly  opposed  and  voted 
against  the  law  now  declare  themselves  its  enthusiastic 
supporters,  and  this  in  the  face  of  their  admissions  that 
criminal  and  other  litigation  has  greatly  decreased  under 
the  operation  of  Prohibition. 

A  striking  feature  of  the  report,  and  indicating  the 
necessity  of  national  law  to  protect  the  States  in  their 
endeavors  to  rid  themselves  of  the  liquor  trafiic,  are  the 
replies  from  eight  or  more  counties  that,  while  the 
saloons  have  been  closed  up  and  abolished,  liquor  is 
nevertheless  shipped  in  from  license  States  in  violation 
of  the  Iowa  law. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  replies  in  the 
table  : 


iuWA.  2411 


8T7MMABT. 


Question  I. — How  successfully  has  ProhibitioQ  closed  the  saloozu 
in  your  part  of  the  State?— 58  replies,  54  of  which  assert  positirely 
that  there  are  no  open  saloons  ;  2,  that  the  law  is  not  at  all  enforced  ; 
1,  that  open  saloons  are  few  ;  1,  that  old  and  well-regulated  saloons 
have  been  closed  up,  but  small  ones  remain  because  of  difficulty  of 
finding  and  convicting  the  owner. 

Question  II. — To  what  extent  has  Prohibition  diminished  drunken 
ness  and  the  consumption  of  intoxicants  for  beverage  purposes? — 
58  replies,  50  replying  that  it  has  decreased  drunkenness,  and  the 
consumption  of  liquor.-*  in  per  cents,  varying  from  40  to  1)9  per  cent.  ; 
2  say  "  very  little  ;"  3,  "not  at  all  ;"  1,  "  diminished  beer  drinking,  in- 
creased whiskey  drinking";  1,  '*  increased";  1,  *'  don't  believe  dimin. 
ished."  A  considerable  proportion  of  the  answers  to  these  questions, 
it  will  be  noticed,  complain  that  liquor  is  shipped  in  from  other 
States  to  individuals. 

Question  III. — Has  not  the  loss  of  revenue  from  former  saloon 
licenses  been  made  good  by  the  decreasing  burdens  of  pauperism 
and  crime,  and  the  directing  of  the  money  formerly  spent  in  the 
saloons  into  legitimate  channels  of  trade?— 58  replies,  49  answering 
yes  ;  7,  no  ;  2  cannot  tell. 

Question  IV.— Would  you  advise  the  re  establishment  of  the 
saloons,  breweries,  and  distilleries  of  Iowa  under  High  License  ?— 
54,  replies,  46,  no  ;  5  yes  ;  3,  qualified. 

Of  the  unfavorable  reports  contained  in  the  table,  The 
Voice  gives  the  following  explanation  : 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  THE  WORKINGS  OF  THE  LAW  IN  THE 
REBEL  CITIES. 

The  letters  show  that  while  the  law  has  greatly  benefited  nearlj 
the  entire  State,  there  are  a  few  cities  in  irhich  the  full  advantage* 
of  it  have  not  been  reaped.  Particularly  for  the  cities  of  Burlington, 
Dubuque,  and  Davenport,  the  reports  from  the  county  attorney*  are 
unfavorable.  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  officials  are  eleot^ 
by  the  influence  of  political  machines,  and  in  counties  where  the 
politicians  are  especially  subservient  to  the  rnmsellera  the  oonnty 
attorneys  are  not  likely  to  be  friendly  to  the  law. 

In  order  to  get  additional  and  unbiassed  testimony  for  the  three 
cities  named,  we  telegraphed  to  well-known  citiiens  for  brief  state- 


250  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

ments  of  the  facts,   with  intelligent  explanations.      The  following 
answers  have  been  received  : 

BuKLiNGTON,  Ia.,  May  31  {Special  Dispatch).— JJndei  High  License 
we  had,  in  Burlington,  5  breweries,  3  wholesale  liquor  houses,  39 
"  permit"  dealers,  and  80  saloons.  Under  Prohibition  there  are  not 
more  than  30  saloons  in  operation,  and  all  the  other  places  have  been 
driven  out.  There  is  not  one  barrel  of  liquor  in  Burlington  now 
where  there  were  hundreds. 

All  the  saloons  not  being  closed,  the  full  benefits  of  Prohibition 
have  not  been  obtained.  For  this  the  political  influences  are  re- 
sponsible, all  the  civil  officers— judges,  mayor,  policemen,  constables, 
and  justices  of  the  peace— holding  their  places  by  the  favor  of  the 
liquor  men.  The  saloons  that  are  still  running  here  are  operated  by 
outside  dealers,  and  suits  are  pending  against  them. 

This  is  a  river  city  of  about  thirty  thousand  population.  The  Ger- 
man element  is  large,  but  the  situation  is  steadily  improving  under 
Prohibition.  The  extensive  vineyards  and  the  large  beer-gardens 
that  were  operated  as  Sunday  resorts,  where  drunkenness  and  de- 
bauchery  reigned,  are  things  of  the  past.  A  German  anti-Prohibition- 
ist, who  was  mayor  for  four  years  during  the  license  system,  says 
that  drinking  has  decreased  thirty  per  cent.  ;  that  the  saloon  keepers 
used  to  violate  all  laws,  both  of  God  and  man,  especially  the  Sabbath 
law,  which  they  now  observe,  and  that  the  criminal  and  pauper  ex- 
penses during  the  sway  of  High  License  were  so  great  that  little,  if 
anything,  was  left  to  the  city. 

T.  VV.  Barky  to,  a  banker  and  an  anti-Prohibitionist,  states  that 
many  who  formerly  spent  their  money  in  the  saloons  are  now  de- 
positing it  in  the  banks.  The  city  is  orderly,  the  police  judge  and 
half  of  the  police  force  could  be  dispensed  with,  and  hundreds  who 
voted  against  the  Amendment  are  now  enthusiastic  friends  of  the 
law.  It  has  been  successful  beyond  our  hopes.  The  ex-saloon- 
keepers are  asking  for  High  License.  More  building  is  going  on  in 
Burlington  than  in  any  of  the  other  river  cities. 

Mrs,  M.  H.  Dunham. 

Dubuque,  Ia.,  May  31  {Special  Dispatch). — "When  Iowa  voted  for 
Prohibition  by  thirty  thousand  Dubuque  went  against  it  seven  to  one. 
Naturally  in  a  city  intensely  opposed  to  the  measure  at  the  beginning, 
the  most  favorable  results  have  not  been  gained.  A  large  number 
of  the  citizens  are  foreigners,  who  have  considerable  investments  in 
saloons  and  breweries,  and  ever  since  the  law  was  enacted  Dubuque 
has  been  a  rebel  city. 

But  even  in  Dubuque  the  future  has  an  ominous  look  for  the  liquor 
men.  There  is  not  a  saloon-keeper  or  brewer  or  any  one  directly 
interested  in  the  liquor  business  who  would  not  gladly  have  our 
present  law  exchanged  for  any  form  of  license,  high  or  low.  The 
breweries  could  not  be  sold  for  twenty  cents  on  the  dollar.  The 
saloon  keepers  are  beginning  to  understand  that  Prohibition  has  conio 
to  stay,  and  many  admit  that  they  cannot  resist  the  law  much  longer. 

The  progress  of  the  straggle  against  the  violators  has  been  hindered 


IOWA.  261 

by  delays  in  settling  questions  of  law.  Many  now  qucHtionK  arofie, 
and  some  of  them  hud  to  go  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
They  have  been  disposed  of  now,  not  for  Iowa  alone,  biit  for  other 
States  that  may  handle  the  saloons  by  Prohibitory  law  ;  and  such 
States  need  not  experience  the  delays  encountered  in  Iowa. 

It  is  in  no  sense  true  that  Prohibition  has  been  demoralizing  in 
Dubuque.  The  citj',  because  of  peculiar  circumstanoes,  has  not  en- 
joyed the  benefits  coming  from  the  law  in  almost  all  other  quart*  rs, 
that  is  all.  She  has  gone  on  as  before,  taking  license  money  from 
the  saloons,  as  before.  \Vliilo  those  parts  of  Iowa  where  the  law  is 
enforced  are  striking  object-lessons  of  the  benefits  of  Prohibition, 
Dubuque  demonstrates  the  folly  and  wortblessness  of  anything  short 
of  enforced  Prohibition.  Thus  her  record  does  not  show  a  striking 
decrease  in  crime,  although  crime  is  not  on  the  increase. 

J.  T.  Adamb. 

Davenport,  1a.,  May  31  (Special  Dispatch). — Although  the  law  is 
violated  in  Davenport  by  the  connivance  of  the  politicians,  it  is  so 
far  successful  that  the  records  show  no  increase  in  arrests  for  crime. 
The  responsibility  for  violations  lies  upon  Democrats  and  Republi- 
cans alike.     Both  parties  try  to  control  the  liquor  vote. 

£.  W.  Bbadt. 

These  three  cities  are  the  worst  spots  in  Iowa.  Excepting  a  very 
few  other  cities,  they  are  the  only  bad  spots.  On  the  other  hand, 
Prohibition  has  been  conspicuously  successful  in  cities  just  as  im. 
portant  as  Burlington,  Dubuque,  and  Davenport— notably  in  Des 
Moines,  Sioux  City,  and  Keokuk.  All  the  reputable  testimony  that 
is  received  goes  to  prove  that  Prohibition  works  magnificently  over 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  vast  territory  of  the  State, 

D.  W.  Clements,  County  Attorney  of  Fayette  County, 
writes  : 

*•  Men  here  who  formerly  spent  much  money  in  thb  8ai/x>n  and 
obtained  their  wearing  apparel  and  their  small  quantitixs  of  obo- 
ceries  on  credit  largely  now  buy  for  cash.     The  mkbchant  beczitxs 

THE  money  formerly  SPENT  IN  THE  SALOONS  AND  THB  7AMILT  OBTS  THB 
BENEFIT." 

J.  K.  Macomber,  County  Attorney  of  Polk  Cnnnty 
(including  Des  Moines,  the  State  capital),  writes  : 

'•  There  is  very  little  drunkenness  here.     It  is  decideolt  tbub 

THAT  THE  SALOON  LICENSE  REVENUE  HAS  BEEN  MORE  THAN  MADE  GOOD  BT 
A  LARGE  DECREASE  IN  THE  AMOUNT  OF  CRIME  AND  THB  DIVEBTINO  OF 
MONEY  THAT  WOULD  OTHERWISE  GO  TO  THE  SALOON  INTO  OTHER  CHANNELS 

OF  TRADE,  I  would  not  udvise  a  repeal  of  Prohibition  and  a  trial  of 
High  License  in  Iowa." 


252 


ECONOMICS   OP    PKOHIBITION. 


HOW     PROHIBITION 

TESTIMONIES    FROM    THE    JUDGES    OF 

HE  Saixx)N  is  Pkacticallt  a  Thing  of  the  Past  ;  Drunkenness, 
have  been  benefited  ;  taxation,  if  anything,  has  tended  to 
Impboved  under  Prohibition, 


Naxe  of 
Judge. 


Scott  H.Ladd,., 
C.  H.  flewia 


Jadicial 
District.* 


Fourth. 
Pourth. 


G.  W.  Wakefield.  'Fourth. 


O.  B.  Ayers , 
J.  H.  Henderson. 
J.  E.  Johnson. . . 

D.  Ryan 

Walter  I.  Hayeet 
8.  M.  Weaver . . , 

~Oeo,  W.  Ruddick 

J.  W.  Sweney$.. 
h.  O.  Hatch,  . . 

H.  E.  Deemer.... 
J.  H.  Macomber. 


I 
Fifth. 

Fifth. 

Sixth. 

Sixth. 

Seventh. 

Eleventh. 

Twelfth. 

Twelfth, 
Thirteenth. 

Fifteenth, 
Sixteenth. 


1.  To  what  extent  is  thel  „  TTTv„f  „„„  „„„  „„,.  ^* 
Prohibition  law  euccessful-l.  2- ^,'*<' ^^^^^J^^  !,^J\^i 
ly  enforced  in    your   sec-l^^^^jj^*  ^'^  '^^^""S  up  the 


Well  as  most  laws. 

Almost  absolutely  univer- 
sally. 

About   as    other   criminal 

ptatutes. 
Saloons  stay  closed. 

Well    as    other    criminal 

statutes. 
Well     as    other    criminal 

statutes. 
Generally. 

Practically  not  at  all. 

Thoroughly. 


Well  as  others  for  proven- 
tion  of  crime. 

In  85  of  09  counties  well  as 
other  criminal  laws. 


Well  enforced  except  1 
county  adjoining  Omaha 

Fairly  well  in  more  thau 
ihreo-fourths  of  State. 


No  saloons  here. 

No  saloons  in  district,  9 
counties. 

Saloons  closed. 

Not  a  saloon  in  district, 
6  counties. 

Not  a  saloon  in  district, 
6  counties. 

Closed  all  saloons  in  dis- 
trict, 6  counties. 

Not  a  saloon  in  this  pre- 
cinct. 

Temporarily  closed,  but 
begin  aijaln. 

No  saloons  in  this  district, 
8  largo  central  counties. 

Closed  except  in  large 
cities. 

Closed  saloons  in  nearly  all 
parts  of  State.  '    ' 

No  open  saloons  in  this 
district,  6  couuties. 

No  saloons  in  this  district 

(8  connticp)  except  one. 
Quite  successful. 


•  Just  before  the  last  sessiou  of  the  Iowa  Lejjislaturo  n  number  of  the  Judj;c9  of 
that  State  wrote  to  Governor  Larabee  giving  ihdr  opinions  of  the  workint' of  the 
Prohibitory  law.  We  give  below  testiinonies  from  districts  not  covered  by  the 
above  table  : 

Hon.  Henry  Bank,  Jr.,  Superior  Court  Jnstlce  :  At  the  September  term,  1887, 
District  Court  of  Keokuk,  for  the  first  time  not  a  criminal  case  before  court. 
Hon.  n.  C.  Travernc,  Judge  2d  District  ;  No  saloons  In  but  1  of  8  counties  lu 
this  district  :  crime  diminished.  Would  have  downed  saloons  long  ago  but 
for  protection  of  FtHicrnl  ConrtH. 
Hon.  J.  \y.  Harvey.  Judae  8d  District  :  Lhw  v.ell  enforced  ;  no  saloons  ;  re- 
duced crime  and  criminal  expenses  one-half. 


IOWA. 


96S 


SUCCEEDS   IN   IOWA. 

THE  DISTRICT  COURTS  OF  THAT  STATE. 

Pauperism,  and  Crimx  hatx  Gbzatlt  Decbeaszd  ;  Burdoem  IirrxBSsn 
Decrease  ;  While  tee  Chasacteb  and  Happiness  of thx  Pxopub  hatb 


3.  To  what  extent  has  it 
diminished  drnnkenness  and 
the  use  of  intoxicants  for 
beverage  purjwses  ? 


Dninkenness  remarkably  re- 
duced. 

Drnnkennesa  vcr\'  largely  ; 
drinking  more'ihau  one- 
half. 

Diminished. 

Largely  decreased. 

Very  much. 

Very  largely. 

Dmnkenness  mnch  less  fre- 
quent. 
Not  at  all. 

Drunkenness  decreased 
three-fourths. 

Diminished  dmnkenness 
three-fourths. 

Decreased  more  than  90  per 
cent. 

Social  drinking  very  com- 
mon ;  a  few  drunkards 
sobered  np. 

Diminished  drunkenness  at 
least  75  per  cent. 

A  great  deal. 


A   wKof  ^„«  ,,/x.,  -«.r  1.  «,^     5.  In  your   observation 


Very  favorable. 

Never  as  prosperous  as  un- 
der Prohibition. 

Business  has  not  suffered. 

Increased  business   on   the 

whole. 
No  bad  effect.    In  opinions 

of  most,  good 
Not  mnch  effect  cither  way. 

Do    not   think   capital    re- 
pulsed. 
No  material  difference. 

For  the  better ;  no  capital 
driven  away. 

Some  cases  reduced  rentt», 
some  lignor  men  gone  to 
other  States. 

No  business  injured  except 
saloons  and  breweries. 


Legitimate  business  has  not 
suffered. 

No  damage  to  any  business 
except  perhaps  the  law- 
yers. 


Yes,  largely. 

Yes,  to  quite  large  extent. 

Goes  to  building  hornet. 
Yes. 

Money  now  saved  ;  people 

more  prosperous. 
Yes,  but  can't  say  to  what 

extent. 
Not  advised. 

Practically  same  as  before. 

Merchants  find  trade  with 
laboring  men  much 
more  satisfactory. 

Don't  know. 


It  has ;  and  to  the  acquire- 
ment  of  homes. 


Yes. 
It  ha 


Hon.  Marcus  Kavanagb.  Jr.,  Judge  0th  District :  Crime  decreased  over  60  per 

cent.;  Prohibition  added  largely  to  individual  happiness. 
Hon.  W.  F.  Conrad,  Judge  9th  District :   Crime  largely  diminished;    eost  of 

court**  very  much  lessened. 
Hon.  Lot  Thomas,  Judge  14th  District :  Beducing  crime  and  ctiminal  expeuMS: 

well  enforced  as  other  criminal  laws 
Hon.  J.  D.  GifTen,  Judce  18th  DifTirt  :  I^w  seems  to  work  well  In  this  district. 
t  Member  Congress  2(1  Concres^ioual  Dictrict     Impeachment  charns  broaght 
in  1886  neainst  Hayes  for  rcfubing  to  enfurce  Prohibition  while  on  tll}  Seneil  wer» 
sustained  hy  the  Legislature. 

^  Member  Congress,  4th  CongTe«<'i'ii'nl  DiKtHit 


254 


ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 


HOW   PROHIBITION   SUC- 


Name  or 

JUDGK. 


Judicial 
District.* 


6.  Haa  Prohibition  teiid- 
led  to  increase  or  decrease 
itaxation  in  ttie  cities  and 
towns  of  your  vicinity  i 
and  to  wliat  extent  ? 


Scott  M.  Ladd. . . 

C.  H.  Hewis 

O.  W.  Wakefield. 

O.  B.  Ayen* 


Fourth. 
Fourth. 
Fourth. 

Fifth 


7.  What  haj?  been  the 
effect  of  Prohibition  on 
criminal  cojidiiions  as  evi- 
denced from  the  records  of 
courts,  i)ri!»ong,  and  froan 
personal  observation  ? 


J.  H.  Henderson.  I  Fifth. 


I 
J,  K.  Johnson. . .  Sixth. 


D.  Ryan 

Walter  I.  Hayeat 
8,  M.  Weaver... 

Geo.  W.  Ruddiclc 

J.  W.  SweneyJ.. 


L.O.  Hatch 

H.  E.  Deemer... 

J.  H.  Macomber. 


Sixth. 

Seventh. 

Eleventh. 

Twelfth. 

Twelfth. 

Thirteenth. 
Fifteenth. 

Sixteenth. 


Think     municipal     taxee 

heavier. 
Decreased. 

Increased,  not  due  to  Pro- 
hibiUon. 

Not  increased. 
To  decrease. 


Decreased  court  and  crira 
inal  expenses  rompon 
sate  for  loss  of  license 
fees. 

To  decrease. 

No  difference. 

Not  increased  ;  local  po 
lice  expenses,  etc.,  ma 
terially  decreased. 

Perhaps  increased  in  towns 
and  cities. 

Enormously  decreased  mu- 
nicipal and  county  ex 
penses. 


Remainfl  about  same. 


Mnnicipal  taxes  perhaps 
Increased,  but  merchants 
benefited  on  the  whole 


Lower  grade  offences  de- 
creased. 

Decreased  more  than  one- 
half. 

Fewer  arrests. 


Crime  decreased  fully  one- 
half. 

Very  marked  decrease. 


Decreased  three-fourths  in 
four  years. 


Decreased  over  one-half  in 

these  6  counties. 
No  distinct  effect. 

Lessened  ;   jail  population 
less  than  for  many  year.s. 

Very     favorable ;      crime 
much  i-educed. 

Little   criminal   business  ; 

most     jails    empty    for 

months. 
No  change  as  to  crimes  per 

se. 
Decreased    50    per    cent. 

Many  jails  untenanted. 

Decreased.-    •    ■• 


♦  Just  before  the  last  session  of  the  Iowa  Leeislature  a  number  of  the  Judges  of 
that  State  wrote  to  Governor  Larabee,  giving  their  opinions  of  the  working  of  the 
Prohibitory  law.  We  give  below  testimonies  from  Districts  not  covered  by  the 
above  table : 

Hon.  Henry  Bank,  Jr..  Superior  Court  Justice  :  At  the  September  term,  1887, 
District  Court  of  Keolcuk,  for  the  first  time  not  a  criminal  case  before 
Court. 
Hon  H.  C.  Traven«e.  Judge  2d  District :  No  saloons  in  but  1  of  R  counties  in 
this  district  ;  crime  dlinini^ljed.  Would  have  downed  saloons  long  ago  but 
for  protecMon  of  Fedfrai  C'onrti>. 
Hon.  J.  W,  Harvey,  Judge  8d  Di»trict:  Law  well  enforced:  no  saloons;  re- 
duced crime  and  criminnl  expensos  ono-half. 


IOWA. 


266 


CEEDS  IN  IOWA— Con^tnticd. 


8.  Has  pauperism  increased 
or  decreased  under  Prohibi- 
tion ? 


Decreased. 

Decreased. 

Probably  comparatively  de- 
creaeed. 

Larfi^ly  decreased. 
Decreased. 
Materially  decreased. 


9.  What  effect  lias  Pro- 
hibition had  u|>on  the 
growth  of  tlie  Stale  in  the 
number  and  cliaracter  of  its 
population  ? 


Attracts  sober  and  better 
element. 

Constantly  improving  every 
way. 

Population  steadily  increas- 
es. 

Next  census  will  show  large, 
healthy  growth. 

Salutary. 

Think  population  bettered. 


Not  time  to  tell  yet. 


10.  Name  any  other  ad- 
vantageous n-'- 
in  your  obi»er\ 
come  from  or  a<  I  I 

Prohibition. 


Cannot  say. 

Some  increase,  but  not  duo  Probably  tended  to  keep  out 

to  Prohibition. 
Certainly  not  increased 


Clears  State  of  crimlnaki 

and  "bummers." 
Benefit  to  working clasMa. 

Think  have  smallest 
per  cent,  illiteracy  in 
nation. 

Criminal  and  poor  ex- 
penses largely  d»> 
creased 

People  more  peaceable, 
contentt-d  ana  proi-iier- 
ous. 

Very  many  advantageu 
from  Prohibition. 


There  are  uone.t 


Decreased. 


Very  materially  decreased. 


some  foreigners. 

Growth  healthy  ;  lost  none, With  each  year  of  Pro- 
but  saloon  keepers.  j     hibitiou  opposition  be- 

comes less. 

Slightly    retarded    growth,  ..     

but    better    classes     not 
driven  away. 

;Character  population  better;; Many  business  men,  for- 
only  liquor-dealers  have  merly  opposed,  i.ow  fa- 
left,  vor  Prombiiion. 


Increased  quite  perceptibly. 
Decreased. 


Losing  some  of  worst  class- 
es ;  gaining  best. 


Saloon  ont  of  politics ; 
bumment  gone,  fewer 
rogues. 

Dozens  of  moral  lepers  left  Labor  more  hopeful ;  sap- 
for    Nebrcska,!    but    no'     pliiw  families  better, 
good  citi/.eD8. 


Hon.  Marcus  Kavanagb,  Jr  ,  Jud^e  oth  I>ibtrict  :  Crime  decreased  over  SO  per 

ividual  happiness. 

Crime  largely  diminished ;  cost  of 


cent.;  Prohibition  iidtlt^'larg«^ly  to  Individual  happinc 
Hon.  W.  F.  Courad,  Judge  9lh  District  r    "-= --  ' '- 


courts  very  much  Jetwened. 
Hon.  Lot  Thomas,  Judge  14ch  District :  Reducing  crime  and  criminal  exprnsw  ; 

well  enforced  as  other  criminal  laws 
Hon.  J.  D  Giffen,  Judge  18th  District :  Law  seems  to  work  well  in  this  district. 
+  Mem»)er  Congress  ad  Coneression.il  District.    Impeachment  charges  brought 
In  1886  againpt  Hayes  for  refusing  to  enforce  Prohibition  while  on  the  Wnch  wcro 
sustained  by  the  Legislature. 

X  Member  Congress  4th  Congressional  District. 
i  A  51.000  High  License  State. 


256  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

The  above  table  is  made  up  of  replies  received  to  a 
series  of  questions  sent  out  by  The  Voice  about  March 
1st  to  all  the  district  judges  of  Iowa.  It  contains  every 
reply,  fourteen  iu  all,  favorable  or  unfavorable,  which 
has  been  received  to  the  questions,  these  replies  covering 
nine  of  the  eighteen  judicial  districts  of  the  State.  In 
a  foot-note  are  appended  some  testimonies  from  judges 
residing  in  districts  not  covered  by  the  above  table.  The 
following  is  a  summary  of  the  replies  given  in  the  table  : 

BUMMABT. 

Question  I. — To  what  extent  is  the  Prohibition  law  successfully 
enforced  in  your  section  ?— 13  replies,  only  1  of  which  intimates  that 
the  law  is  not  well  enforced. 

Question  II, —  What  can  you  say  of  its  effect  in  closing  up  the 
saloons?— 14  replies,  9  of  which  answer  that  all  saloons  are  closed  ; 
1,  **  quite  successful  ;"  1,  '*  no  saloons  in  district  except  in  1  of  8 
coanties  ;"  1,  "closed  saloons  in  nearly  all  parts  of  State;"  1, 
"closed  except  in  large  cities;"  and  1,  "temporarily  closed  but 
soon  begin  again." 

Question  III. — To  what  extent  has  it  diminished  drunkenness  and 
the  use  of  intoxicants  for  beverage  purposes  ? — 14  replies,  12  of 
which  affirm  that  drinking  and  drunkenness  have  been  greatly 
diminished  ;  1,  "  not  at  all  ;"  while  1  asserts  that  social  drinking  is 
very  common,  though  a  few  drunkards  have  been  sobered  up. 

QujiSTioN  IV.  — What  has  been  the  effect  of  Prohibition  on  business 
interests,  and  the  attraction  or  repulsion  of  capital  for  investment? 
— 13  replies,  5  of  which  reply  that  the  result  has  been  favorable  ; 
5,  that  business  has  not  been  injured  except  saloons  and  possibly 
lawyers  ;  2,  that  they  see  no  special  effect  either  way  ;  while  1,  that 
in  some  cases  rents  have  been  reduced  on  account  of  liquor  men 
moving  away. 

Question  V.—Has  money  which  was  formerly  spent  in  the  saloons 
been  directed  to  legitimate  channels  of  trade?— 13  replie8,*9  of  which 
answer  yes  ;  1,  "  money  now  s.ived  ;"  2  do  not  know  ;  1,  '*  practi- 
cally same  as  before." 

Question  VL— Has  Prohibition  tended  to  increase  or  decrease 
Uxes?— 13   replies;    4,    "decreased;"    5,    that  taxes  have  not  in- 


IOWA.  257 

creased  ;  1,  '*  increased,  not  due  to  Prohibition  ;"  1,  '•  inoreaMd, 
but  merchants  benefited  on  the  whole  ;*'  while  2  think  municipal 
taxes  may  be  higher. 

Question  VIT.  -What  has  been  the  effect  of  Prohibition  on  criminal 
conditions?-  14  replies,  12  of  which  reply  that  crime  is  much  de- 
creased, while  2  can  sse  no  change. 

Question  VIII.  —Has  pauperism  increased  or  decreased  under  Pro- 
hibition?-13  replies,  10.  answering  "decreased;"  1,  "not  in- 
creased;" 1,  "cannot  say;"  1,  "some  increase,  not  due  to  Pro- 
hibition." 

Question  IX.— What  effect  has  Prohibition  on  the  growth  of  the 
State  in  the  number  and  character  of  population?— 13  replies,  10, 
that  the  effect  has  been  good  ;  1,  "  not  time  to  tell  yet  ;"  1,  "  prob- 
ably tended  to  keep  out  some  foreigners  ;"  and  1,  "  slightly  retarded 
growth,  but  better  classes  not  driven  away.' ' 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  of  these  answers  to  The  Voice* 8 
questions  from  nine  of  the  eighteen  judicial  districts  of 
Iowa  practically  but  one  can  be  construed  as  unfavor- 
able to  the  working  of  the  law  ;  while  in  the  foot-notes 
are  favorable  testimonies  from  judges  in  at  least  six  of 
the  remaining  districts. 

The  following  extracts  from  letters  of  the  district 
judges  to  Governor  Larrabee  give  more  fully  their  ap- 
proval of  the  law  and  their  reasons  fOr  it.  Several  of 
these  judges  opposed  Prohibition  when  it  was  liret 
agitated,  but  the  beneficial  results  apparent  from  it 
caused  them  to  change  their  minds,  and  in  their  letters 
to  the  Governor  they  objected  to  efforts  for  nipeal. 
Judge  Carson,  of  the  Fifteenth  District,  wrote  : 

'•  When  in  the  Senate  I  favored  Local  Option,  but  I  am  now  aatia- 
fied  that  the  [Prohibition]  statute  should  stand.  My  belief  is  that 
the  efifect  has  been  very  favorable  in  the  reduction  of  criminal 
offences,  especially  those  growing  out  of  brawls  and  quarrelling." 

So  heartily  did  the  judges  commend  the  law  tliat  only 
three  of  the  twenty-four  from  w}ir»m  opiniona  have  l)€en 


258  ECONOMICS    OF    rKOHIBlTIOX. 

quoted  answered  unfavorably.  The  following  are  ex- 
tracts from  the  letters,  as  published  lately  in  the  Lincoln 
(Xeb.)  New  Republic: 

Judge  H.  C.  Traverse,  of  the  Second  District : 

*'  Wo  would  have  had  the  saloon  down  long  ago  if  the  federal 
courts  had  not  stretched  their  protecting  hands  over  the  heads  of 
such  fellows  as  '  Stormy  Jordan.'  As  it  is,  there  is  only  one  county 
(Wapello)  out  of  the  eight  counties  comprising  this  district  where 
open  saloons  are  in  operation.  My  experience  is  that  wherever  saloons 
are  closed  crime  is  diminished" 

THE    FEDERAL    COURTS    A    HINDRANCE. 

Judge  D.  Stewart,  of  the  Second  District  : 

*'  I  would  not  advise  the  repeal  of  the  Prohibitory  liquor  law.  I 
am  satisfied  that  this  district  would  have  been  entirely  rid  of  saloons 
and  breweries  for  the  past  year  or  two  if  the  inferior  federal  courts 
had  not  interfered  with  the  State  courts." 

Judge  J.  W.  Harvoy,  of  the  Third  District  : 

*•  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  a  saloon  in  the  district.  It  [Pro- 
hibition] lias  reduced  crime  at  least  one-half,  and  the  criminal  expenses 
in  like  ratio.     1  would  not  and  do  not  favor  the  repeal  of  the  law. " 

Judge  C.  H.  Lewis,  of  the  Fourth  District  : 

"  The  law  It  as  well  enforced,  as  any  other,  and  has  decreased  criminal 
expenses  at  least  two- thirds." 

Judge  S.  M.  Ladd,  of  the  Fourth  District  : 

"  There  is  a  great  decrease  of  cases  triable  before  justices,  but  not 
much  change  in  the  number  of  higher  offences." 

Judge  G.  W.  Wakefield,  of  the  Fourth  District : 

**  I  am  satisfied  that  our  city  [Sioux  City],  havinR  during  the  last 
year  enjoyed  a  season  of  great  prosperity  and  growth,  has  aided 
materially  in  the  change  of  affairs  here.     As  thb  sai^oons  were  dbivsm 

OtJT,  OTHZB  BirannESfl  OAKV  IN  TO  OCCTTPY  THB   VACIHT  PLACES. " 


IOWA.  269 

Judge  O.  B.  x\yre8,  of  the  Fifth  District  : 

"  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the  Prohibitory  law  has  rednoed  crim- 
inal  offences  and  the  expenses  of  the  courts  in  this  district  very 
largely,  and  I  certainly  would  not  advise  a  repeal  of  it." 

Judge  J.  K.  Johnson,  of  the  Sixth  District  : 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  effect  of  the  Prohibitory  law  hM 
been  to  reduce  very  materially  crime  and  criminal  expenses  in  this 
district." 

INDIVIDUAL  HAPPINESS  PBOMOTED. 

Judge  Marcus  Havanagh,  of  the  Ninth  District  : 

"11  [Prohibition]  has  decreased  crime  over  Jifly  per  cent,  and  a'ided 
largely  to  individual  happiness." 

Judge  W.  F.  Conrad,  of  the  Ninth  District : 

"As  to  the  operation  of  the  law,  my  observation  is  that  it  has 
largely  diminished  crime  in  this  district  and  very  mncb  lessened  the 
costs  of  maintaining  the  courts." 

Judge  S.  M.  Weaver,  of  the  Eleventh  District  : 

"  Crime  generally  is  very  much  lessened." 

Judge  John  B.  Cleland,  of  the  Twelfth  District  : 

"  The  action  of  the  law  has  been  beneficial,  and  tended  to  lessen 
criminal  business  and  expenses." 

Judge  C.  T.  Granger,  of  the  Thirteenth  District : 

'*  The  closing  of  the  front  door  of  the  saloon,  whereby  it  is  de- 
stroyed as  a  place  of  social  resort,  has  cancelled  nine-tenths  of  the  drunk- 
enness." 

Judge  Lot  Thomas,  of  the  Fourteenth  District : 

"  As  to  the  effect  of  the  Prohibitory  law  in  this  district,  I  am  satis- 
fied that  it  is  reducing  crime  and.  as  a  consequence,  criminal  ex- 
pense. In  this  dislric'  the  law  is  as  xoell  enforced  as  are  any  of  the  mher 
criminal  laws  of  the  Slate.  In  my  jndgment,  it  would  be  a  grave  mis- 
take to  attempt  to  repeal  the  law  or  to  sabstitnte  Local  Option  or 
High  License  in  its  place." 


260  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

Judge  H.  E.  Deemer,  of  the  Fifteenth  District : 

*'  The  Prohibitory  law  is  working  nicely  in  every  county  in  this 
district  except  in  Pottawatomie,  and  I  think  there  it  is  having  a  good 
effect  and  gaining  ground  rapidly.  It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  there  the 
criminai  docket  is  much  larger,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  inhabitants, 
than  in  other  counties.*' 


REPEAL    WOULD   BE   A    CALAMITY. 

Judge  A.  B.  Thornell,  of  the  Fifteenth  District : 

"  The  Prohibitory  law  has  been  very  effective  in  all  places  in  this 
district  except  at  Council  Bluffs.  I  should  regard  its  repeal  as  a 
calamity,  and  have  no  suggestions  to  offer  in  its  stead. " 

To  all  this  we  would  add  : 

Gov.  Labbabee's  Fabewell  Message  t<J  the  Legislattjee. 

The  Governor  on  the  Splendid  Achievements  of  Prohibition—  The  State  is 
in  Every  Way  the  Better  for  the  Law — Figures  Showing  Decrease  in 
Crime,  etc. 

Des  Moines,  Ia.,  February  17,  1890.— Governor Larrabee's  farewell 
message  to  the  Legislature  has  just  been  made  public.  The  following 
are  a  few  extracts  from  the  Governor's  remarkably  strong  state- 
ments : 

•*  Thousands  of  those  who  voted  against  the  Constitutional  Amend- 
ment, in  the  belief  that  such  a  law  would  prove  a  dead  letter,  are  now 
convinced  that  it  can  be  enforced,  and  demand  its  retention.  Sioux 
City,  Des  Moines,  Cedar  Rapids,  and  Ottumwa  have  banished  the 
saloon,  and  yet  are  among  the  most  prosperous  cities  in  the  State. 

"  The  benefits  which  have  resulted  to  the  Stitte  from  the  enforce- 
ment of  this  law  are  far-reaching  indeed.  It  is  a  well  recognized 
fact  that  crime  is  on  the  increase  in  the  United  States,  but  Iowa 
doen  not  contribute  to  that  increase.  While  the  number  of  convicts 
in  the  country  at  large  rose  from  one  in  every  3.442  of  population  in 
1850  to  one  in  every  860  in  1880,  the  ratio  in  Iowa  is  at  present  only 
one  to  every  3,130.      The  JAir>8  op  many  counties  abe  now  empty 

DURING  A  GOOD  POUTION  OF  THE  YEAR.  AND   THE   NUMBER   OF   CONVICTS   IN 
OUB  PENITENTIARIES    HAS    BEKN    REDUCED    FROM    750   IN    MaRCR,   188G    TO 

604  ON  July  1,  1889.     It  is  the  testimony  of  the  judges  of  oub 

C0UBT8  THAT  CRIMINAL  BUSINESS  HAS  BEEN  REDUCED   FBOM   30   TO   75    PEB 
CENT  .  AND  THAT   CRIMINAL  EXPENSES   HAVE   DIHINISHKn   IN  LIKE  PBOPOB- 

noN. 


IOWA.  tm 

"  There  is  a  remarkable  decrease  in  the  busiDeRs  and  fees  of  sheriffs 
and  criminal  lawyers,  as  well  as  in  the  number  of  requiKitionK  and 
extradition  warrauta  issued.  "NVe  have  less  panpern  and  less  tramps 
in  the  State  in  proportion  to  onr  population  than  ever  before. 

'*  BrSW£BIKS  have  been  CONV£RTI-a>  INTO  OATMEAL  MILXS  A.V1>  CAKtmSO 
FACTORIES,  AND  ARE  OPERATED  AS  SUCH  BY  THEIR  OWNERS. 

*'  The  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  shows  an 
increased  school  attendance  throughout  the  State. 

'*  The  poorer  classes  have  better  fare,  better  clothino,  BrrrxR 
schooling.  and  better  houses, 

**  The  deposits  in  banks  show  an  unprecedented  d^beasb.  aih) 

THERE  are   everywhere    INDICATIONS   OF   A    HEALTHY  GROWTH  IN  LEGITI- 
MATE TRADE.     Merchants  and  commercial  travellers  bepobt  lsm 

LOSSES  in  COLLECTIONS  IN  loWA  THAN  ELSEWHERE. 

**  It  is  safe  to  say  that  not  one-tenth,  and  probably  not  one  twen- 
tieth as  much  liquor  is  consumed  in  the  State  now  as  was  five  years 
ago.  The  standard  of  temperance  has  been  greatly  raised  even  in 
those  cities  where  the  law  is  not  yet  enforced.  Many  a  man  formerly 
accustomed  to  drink  and  treat  in  a  saloon  has  abandoned  this  prac- 
tice in  deference  to  public  opinion. 

"  Our  courts  show  a  marked  improvement  in  dealing  with  this 
question,  nearly  all  of  the  judges  being  now  disposed  to  enforce  the 
law,  whether  they  are  in  sympathy  with  it  or  not.  In  those  counties 
where  the  law  is  not  enforced  the  fault  lies  almost  invariably  with 
the  executive  oflficers." 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  dismiss  the  matter  without 
considering 

GOVERNOR  BOIES  VS.   GOVERNOR  LABRABEE. 

Governor  Larrabee,  after  four  years'  experience  as 
Governor,  gives  specific  facts  from  the  records.  Note 
this  :  The  number  of  convicts,  said  Governor  Larrabee, 
in  Iowa  in  1880  was  one  to  860  of  population  ;  in  1889 
it  was  one  to  3,130.  *Mt  is  the  testimony  of  the  judges 
of  our  courts,"  he  said  further,  *'  that  criminal  business 
has  been  reduced  30  to  75  percent.,  and  that  criminal 
expenses  have  been  reduced  in  like  proportion.'' 

Compare  with  these  specific  statements  the  strongest 
assertions  made  by  Governor  Boies,  and  see  how  weak 
the  latter  are  in  fact.     He  says  : 

'*  It  is  a  patent  fact,  known  to  every  one  who  has  taken  the  pains 
to  inform  himself,  that  in  many  of  onr  oitien  [no  names  given],  con- 


262  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

taining  as  they  do  a  large  fraction  of  our  population,  the  only  effect 
of  the  law  has  been  to  relieve  the  traffic  in  these  liquors  from  legal 
restraint  of  every  kind, 

"  There  is  not  a  large  city  in  the  world  where  the  demand  for  in- 
toxicating liquor  as  a  beverage  is  not  supplied  by  either  a  legalized 
or  illicit  traffic  therein,  nor  has  there  been  nor  will  there  be. 

"  In  ray  judgment,  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  enforcement  of  this 
law  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  and  of  itself  it  is  a  cruel  violation  of  one 
of  the  mosk  valued  of  human  rights.' 

In  Governor  Boies's  argument  there  is  practically 
nothing  to  answer,  because  in  the  whole  speech  from 
which  these  are  extracts  he  gives  absolutely  no  statistics. 
It  is  all  a  priori  argument  against  Prohibition — very  old 
at  that — and  unsupported  inferences  therefrom.  As  a 
specimen  of  his  inferences^  take  the  following  : 

*'  It  is  equally  notorious  that  in  the  large  cities  of  the  State  where 
the  open  saloon  has  been  closed  [an  admission  that  there  is  some 
'  legal  restraint !  *]  a  secret  traffic  sufficient  to  supply  all  the  wants  of 
the  trade  has  immediately  followed." 

This  is  unsupported  assertion.  ^'  It  is  notorious" — 
which  by  no  means  shows  that  it  is  true,  when  the  class 
of  witnesses  who  make  it  **  notorious'^  is  considered. 
But  if  the  ^'  secret  traffic"  is  ^'  sufficient  to  supply  all 
the  wants  of  tlie  trade,"  what  is  '*  the  trade"  worrying 
about  ?  "Why  do  they  want  to  pay  a  license  when  they 
can  sell  all  they  like  for  nothing  ?  Such  argument  is  an 
insult  to  the  intelligence  of  rational  men. 

How  it  is  possible  to  get  liquor  in  Iowa  a  little  story 
will  show.  The  author  heard  a  well-known  lawyer  of 
Ohio  relate  this  incident  in  the  presence  of  a  number  of 
persons  who  can  be  called  on  to  substantiate  it  if  need- 
ful.    He  said  : 

"  After  I  had  been  at  the  hotel  about  a  day  and  seen  no  liquor, 
I  began  to  want  some  vory  ranch.     I  went  to  the  landlord  and  asked 


IOWA.  263 

him  where  I  cnuld  get  ft  drink  of  whiskey.  He  replied,  '  We  don't 
sell  any.     It*8  against  the  law.'     In  a  moment  or  two  be  turned  to 

me,  and  said,  *  Step  this  way,  Mr.  ,  I  would  like  to  speak  with 

you.'  I  followed  him  up  two  flights  of  stairs  and  down  a  long  hall, 
till  at  last  he  knocked  at  a  door,  and  said,  *  There's  a  gentleman  in 

there  who  would  like  to  speak  to  you,  Mr. ;  '  then  turned  and 

walked  off.  In  a  minute  the  door  opened,  and  a  man  said,  '  Come 
in  here  ! '  I  went  in,  and  ho  locked  the  door,  took  out  the  key  and 
put  it  in  his  pocket.  Then  he  went  to  a  dark  closet  and  took  down 
a  black  bottle  and  a  dirty  glass,  poured  out  a  drink,  and  handed  it  to 
me,  saying,  '  There,  drink  that  quick,  and  get  out  of  this  ! '  Soon  as 
I  was  outside  the  door  he  turned  the  key  behind  me.  I  was  so  dis. 
gusted  that  I  felt  as  if  I  never  wanted  another  drink  of  whiskey  as 
long  as  I  lived.  But  I  did  go  for  it  several  times  afterward,  and 
every  day  I  had  to  go  to  a  different  room.''* 

Now  if  any  one  claims  that  there  will  be  as  much  sell- 
ing and  drinking  on  such  a  system  as  by  open,  licensed, 
splendid  saloons,  he  simply  shows  that  he  is  doing  his 
best  to  make  out  a  very  bad  case. 

But  Governor  Boies  con-tinues  : 

"  It  mnsi  be  apparent  to  unbiassed  mind.^  that  in  these  localities,  at 
least,  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  as  a  beverage  has  not  been 
diminished  by  our  Prohibitory  law,  but  instead  thereof  that  it  has 
been  greatly  increased,  if  want  of  legal  restraint  of  any  kind  will 
produce  that  effect." 

Not  an  attempt  to  produce  one  figure  in  evidence  ! 
^*  The  Statistics  of  Ifs''  would  be  a  good  name  for  this 
conclusion.  If  the  Governor  had  facts  ho  would  give 
them.  If  there  were  facts  to  be  had,  he  would  have 
found  them.  Since  he  gives  not  one  fact,  that  is  the 
very  best  proof  that  there  are  no  facts  on  his  side.  But 
the  Governor's  idea  of  "  a  want  of  legal  restraint  of  any 
kind"  is  sufficiently  comical.  It  seems  that  to  abso- 
lutely forhid  a  thing  hy  law  is  complete  **  want  of  legal 
restraint."  For  instance,  think  of  **  the  want  of  legal 
restraint  of    any  kind"  on  burglary  and  highway  rob- 


264  ECOXOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

bery  !  It  is  evident  these  crimes  must  be  vastly  increas- 
ing in  Iowa.  We  have  not  heard  of  any  instances,  but 
it  must\)Q  so,  *Sywant  of  legal  restraint  of  any  kind 
will  produce  that  effect."  To  think  of  those  absolutely 
unlicensed  and  unregulated  burglars  and  highwaymen 
and  the  terrible  increase  of  their  crimes  that  must  be 
going  on  ! 

But  life  is  too  short  and  too  serious  to  spend  on  such 
logic.  When  the  Governor  will  give  us  some  facts,  they 
shall  have  respectful  attention.  Till  then,  the  statistic 
of  Governor  Larrabee  and  the  district  judges  and  other 
attested  facts  stand  exactly  where  they  would  if  Gov- 
ernor Boies  had  not  spoken.  In  the  realm  of  facts  his 
speech  is  an  absolute  blank,  and  as  such  may  be  dis- 
missed from  consideration. 

The  jails  remain  just  as  empty,  the  number  of  con- 
victs in  the  penitentiary  just  as  small,  the  dockets  -of  the 
criminal  courts  just  as  blank,  and  the  bank  vaults  just 
as  full  as  if  Governor  Boies  had  never  delivered  his  in- 
augural. We  remember  that  Governor  Glick  started  on 
just  such  a  track  in  K^ansas  in  1882.  But  Governor 
Glick  is  gone  and  the  law  of  Kansas  stands  stronger  than 
ever.  We  are  dealing  with  economics,  and  we  have 
one  very  refreshing  piece  of  economics  to  deal   with. 

The  following  item  appeared  in  the  Indianapolis 
Journal,  April  3d,  1889  : 

"  The  State  of  Iowa  fleems  to  be  in  a  highly  sound  and  solvent 
financial  condition.  The  State  Treaanrer  has  just  called  in  $75,000 
of  outstanding  warrants  and  $220,000  more  will  be  called  for  April 
25th.  When  the  last  named  batch  is  paid  off  the  floating  in- 
debtedness of  the  State  will  be  reduced  to  less  than  $75,000,  which 
may  be  increased  some  during  the  summer  by  current  appropria- 
tions, but  will  be  wiped  out  by  the  fall  taxes,  leaving  the  Ptate  out 
of  debt  by  January  Ist.  1890." 


IOWA.  5*66 

We  next  quote  the  following  from  The  Voice  of  Juno 
6th,  1889  : 

Keokuk,  Ia.,  May  31.  {BptciaX  Correspondence.)— A  most  notable 
demonstration  of  the  unparalleled  commercial  prosperity  that  attends 
Prohibition  wherever  it  is  well  enforced,  is  the  cancelling  of  the  in- 
terest-bearing debt  of  the  State  of  Iowa.  The  State  Treasurer  has 
issued  a  call  for  outstanding  warrants,  covering  $95,000,  the  last 
remnant  of  the  interest-bearing  debt  of  the  State.  The  call  expires 
on  June  25th. 

This  is  a  gratifying  surprise  to  the  people  of  Iowa,  for  it  was  never 
expected  that  the  debt  would  be  wiped  out  so  soon.  The  news  that 
the  last  dollar  was  to  be  paid  off  electrified  'the  whole  State  House 
force,  from  the  janitors  up  to  the  Governor,  and  occasioned  murU 
comment  among  the  lawyers  in  attendance  at  the  Supreme  Court. 

And  this  is  how  Prohibition  is  "  ruining  Iowa." 

Now  we  are  informed  that  this  has  actually  been  done, 
and  lov^a  stands  in  the  list  of  States  in  the  new  Worhl 
almanac,  with  **  Funded  Debt — None." 

When  it  comes  to  such  a  pass  that  a  State  has  no  debt, 
and  is  running  short  of  convicts,  it  is  high  time  some- 
thing should  be  done.  No  doubt  a  **  well-devityed'* 
system  of  High  License  would  soon  change  allthis. 


CHAPTEK  XYI. 

.  KHODE    ISLAND. 
"  HUADQUABTEBS  OF  THE  EhODZ  ISLAin>  \ 

Pbotective  Trade  Association,  \- 

June  6,  1889.  ) 

**Ikar  Sir  :  On  the  20th  of  this  month  the  election  will  take  place 
in  this  State  on  the  question  of  repealing  the  Constitutional  Pro- 
hibition Amendment  now  in  force.  The  time  for  work  is  verj'  short, 
and  we  are  urgently  in  need  of  funds  to  carry  on  this  campaign,  and 
strongly  appeal  to  you  to  aid  us  in  this  crisis.  The  final  overthrow  oj 
the  Prohibitory  party  in  Rhode  Island  is  almost  assured  ai  this  election, 
bat  we  find  that  the  liberal  contributions  of  our  friends  here  are 
inadequate  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  occasion.  We  therefore  send 
this  appeal  to  our  friends  abroad  for  financial  aid  to  assist  us  in 
making  the  fight.  Whatever  sum  you  may  feel  disposed  to  contrib- 
ute,  please  send  at  once  to  Mr.  P.  F.  Madigan,  Treasurer,  who  will 
acknowledge  the  same  in  our  behalf.  Very  respectfully  yours, 
P.  F.  Madigan,  Thomas  Grimes,  Edward  Smith,  Patrick  Maroney, 
P.  H.  Hogan,  John  J.  Maguire,  D.  W,  Sheehan,  Hugh  Gorman  <k Co., 
P.  O'Connor,  William  F.  Grimes,  Charles  H.  Stebbins,  A.  J.  Dona- 
hue, Committee  of  the  R.  I.  Protective  Trad©  Association. 

"J,  J.  Morgan,  "James  Hanley, 

*  •  Secretary.  '  •  President. ' ' 

-'Circular  of  Liquor  Dealer's  Association. 

After  a  very  spirited  contest  a  Prohibitory  Constitu- 
tional Amendment  was  adopted,  April  7th,  1886,  by  the 
following  vote  : 

For  the  Amendment 15,113 

Against  "  9,230 

The  vote  for  the  Amendment  was  more  than  three- 


RHODE  .ISLAND.  267 

fifths  of  those  voting  at  the  election,  as  the  Constitution 
requires  it  to  be,  in  order  that  an  amendment  may  pre- 
vail. But  the  total  vote  was  light,  being  but  24,343, 
while  the  vote  for  Governor  the  same  year  was  26,869, 
and  the  vote  for  President  in  1884  was  o2,771.  The 
success  of  the  Amendment  was  a  complete  surprise  to 
the  liquor  men,  and  doubtless  the  light  total  vote  gave 
them  hope.  Rhode  Island  contains  a  large  foreign  popu- 
lation, and  is  on  the  highway  between  the  two  great 
liquor  centres  of  Boston  and  New  York.  The  area  of 
the  State  is  so  small  that  enforcement  of  a  Prohibitory 
law,  with  license  States  all  around,  is  peculiarly  difficult. 
The  State  is  almost  all  border.  To  add  to  the  difficulty, 
the  Legislature  appointed  General  Charles  R.  Bray  ton, 
an  avowed  enemy  of  Prohibition,  as  the  chief  of  a  State 
Special  Police  for  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  How 
the  law  would  be  enforced  in  such  circumstances  was 
easy  to  predict,  and  the  predictions  were  fulfilled.  There 
was  that  steadily  weakening  enforcement  of  law  which 
more  than  anything  else  makes  it  contemptible.  Tiio 
law  itself  was  imperfect  in  many  important  respects. 
Yet,  with  all  this,  the  effect  of  Prohibition  was  ex- 
tremely favorable.  The  following  statement  is  given  in 
the  Political  Prohibitionist  for  1888  : 

Decrease  op  Abbests  and  Cbime  in  Providence. — The  city  of  Provi- 
denco  is  the  stronghold  of  the  liqnor  traffic  ia  Rhode  Island.  The 
results  gained  in  that  city  are  much  less  favorable  than  those  ob 
tained  in  other  parts  of  the  State.  The  table  below  shows  the  nnm- 
ber'of  arrests  for  offences  growing  out  of  the  liqnor  traffic,  and  tbo 
total  number  of  arrests  in  Providence  during  the  first  six  months  of 
Prohibition  (July,  1886,  to  January.  1887)  as  compared  with  th« 
arrests  during  the  cr)rresp..nding  months  of  1885,  when  the  city  wa» 
nnder  license.  The  city  had  the  same  chief  of  police  during  the  two 
years,  so  that  it  cannot  be  clnimed  that  the  decrease  of  arrests  under 
I'rohibition  is  due  to  a  less  efficient  administration  of  the  lav  : 


268  ECOJSOMICS    UF    FKuHlblTlOX 


CASES   BEFOBTED   BY   POUCE. 


U-  Pr6- 

cense,     hibition.         De- 


Assault 96  71  25 

Breaking  and  entering 20  13  7 

Brawlers,   revellers,    and  disor- 
derly persons 103  69  34 

Common  drunkards 60  29  31 

Disturbances  suppressed 1,000  638  362 

Drunkenness 2,457  1,423  1,034 

Larcenies 350  305  45 

Vagrancy  and  sturdy  beggars . . ,  108  49  59 

Total 4,194       2,597       1,597 

Arrests  for  all  kinds  of  crimes. .    3,398     *2,262       1,136 

That  18,  during  the  first  six  months  of  Prohibition, 
drunkenness  was  decreased  almost  one-half,  and  crime 
of  all  kinds  one-third  in  the  chief  citj.  In  the  rural 
districts  the  results  would,  of  course,  be  better  still. 
What  this  reduction  of  drunkenness  and  crime  means  it 
is  not  easy  to  estimate  in  cash.  The  reduction  of  court 
and  police  expenses,  the  increase  of  wage-earning  power, 
the  avoidance  of  the  sicknesses  which  result  from  excess 
and  exposure,  must  count  up  to  a  heavy  sum  on  the 
credit  side.  These  figures  show  at  once  why  the  law 
was  80  bitterly  hated.  "What!"  it  will  be  said,  "a 
law  hated  because  it  reduces  drunkenness  and  crime  ?" 
Exactly  that.  For  that  shows  that  less  liquor  was  con- 
sumed ;  which  means  that  less  liquor  was  sold.  Where- 
ever  that  is  the  case,  the  combined  Liquor  Power  of  the 
nation,  and  all  its  adherents  on  the  platform  and  in  the 
press  will  storm  at  and  curse  that  law.  That  it  works 
for  the  general  prosperity  of  the  community  is  so  much 
proof  that  it  is  a  bad  law  for  the  liquor  trade.  If  men 
have  not  been  getting  drunk,  it  shows  that  they  have 


•  Inoltiding  236  arrests  for  violation  of  the  Prohibitory  law. 


RHODE    ISLAND.  .     'i»{9 

not  bought  so  much  liquor  as  they  might  have  done. 
If  they  have  spent  money  for  groceries,  clothing,  and 
shoes,  that  is  so  imich  that  they  have  not  spent  for  drink. 
If  the  money  has  been  deposited  in  banks,  it  is  becau^o 
it  was  not  deposited  in  saloons.  All  the  mighty  agencies 
of  the  liquor  traffic  will  be  exerted  to  break  down  such 
a  law.     Its  merits  are  its  faults. 

In  Rhode  Island  the  economic  benefit  of  the  law  was 
plainly  shown. 

At  a  legislative  hearing  on  the  question  of  the  resub- 
mission of  the  Prohibition  Amendment  an  address  was 
made  by  Mr.  Walter  B.  Frost,  a  prominent  Providence 
journalist,  in  reply  to  the  claims  of  the  Resubmissionis'ts 
that  Prohibition  has  '^  disarranged  business,"  *'  depre- 
ciated the  value  of  real  estate,"  is  **  incapable  of  enforce- 
ment," and  is  "  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
State."  Mr.  Frost's  unanssverable  figures — all  taken 
from  official  sources — put  an  entirely  new  face  upon  the 
Providence  situation. 

Mr.  Frost  said  : 

"  Every  business  man  who  bos  signed  that  petition  [for  resabmis- 
sion]  will  admit  that  the  volume  of  bank  clearings,  taken  year  in 
and  year  out,  give  a  fair  indication  of  the  condition  of  business  ; 
that  when  business  is  dull  or  '  disarranged  '  the  vulnme  of  bank 
transactions  decreases,  and  that  when  business  is  brisk  and  the  city 
is  prosperous  the  clearings  increase  in  volume.  Let  us  take  the 
figures  for  the  last  three  years  under  High  License,  and  compare 
them  with  the  three  years  of  Prohibition.  In  1883  the  clearings 
amounted  to  $237,148,800.  In  1884  they  were  |217,448.300,  a  de- 
crease of  $20,000,000.  In  1885  the  clearings  figured  $216,466,200.  a 
decrease  of  a  million  since  the  previous  year,  and  a  net  deereaae  of 
$21,000,000  in  the  three  years. 

BANK  CIJ£ABIKOS   UNDEB  PBOH|BmOK. 

"  In  1886  Prohibition  was  voted.  That  year  buBinen  waa  *  di». 
arranged '  to  the  extent  that  the  bank  clearings  at  once  jnmped  np 


270  ECONOMICS    OF    PHOHIBITIOX. 

to  $232,688,200,  an  iacrease  of  $16,000,000,  instead  of  the  regular 
decrease  of  the  previous  three  years.  In  1887,  when  the  law  wa^j 
fairly  well  enforced,  the  clearings  rose  to  $244,077,100,  another  in 
crease  of  $12,000,000.  In  1888,  when  the  law  was  not  enforced  as 
well,  the  increase  was  only  $4,000,000,  but  still  an  increase,  tho 
figures  being  $248,069,640.  In  other  words,  during  the  last  year  of 
license  tho  volume  of  business  in  this  city  had  actually  decreased 
$20,683,600,  compared  with  three  years  previous,  while  during  tho 
third  year  under  this  amendment  the  bank  transactions  had  increased 
$32,204,440  over  the  last  year  of  license.  These  figures  are  taken 
from  the  news  columns  of  the  Providence  Journal,  and  cannot  be 
discredited  by  these  petitioners.  • 

THE    SAVINGS    BANKS. 

V  These  Kesubmiss'ionists  will  also  admit  that  the  condition  of  the 
savings  banks  forms  a  very  fair  criterion  from  which  to  judge  the 
prosperity  of  the  masses,  or  the  lack  of  it,  and  consequently  tho  con- 
dition of  business.  I  will  apply  the  same  test  to  the  volume  of  sav- 
ings banks  deposits  which  I  applied  to  the  bank  clearings.  In  1882 
tho  amount  due  depositors  in  all  the  savings  banks  of  this  State  was 
$48,320,671.80.  Three  years  later  the  deposits  had  grown  to  $51,816, - 
390.42,  an  increase  of  $3,000,000  in  the  hist  three  years  of  license. 
On  November  21st,  1888,  the  amount  duo  depositors  had  increased 
to  $57,699,884.94.  or  $6,000,000  accretion  during  the  rule  of  Pro- 
hibition—an increase  over  the  three  license  years  of  100  per  cent. 

PROSPEKITY   OF   A   PETITIONEE'S   BANK. 

**  The  total  number  of  individual  depositors  in  1882  was  112,472  ; 
in  1885  the  number  was  116,381— an  increase  of  4,091.  In  1888  the 
depositors  numbered  123,102— an  increase  of  6,721  during  Prohibi- 
tion as  against  4,091  during  a  corresponding  time  under  license. 
The  largest  bank  in  this  city  is  the  Providence  Institution  for  Sav- 
ings, of  which  Colonel  William  Goddard,  one  of  these  petitioners  for 
resubmission,  is  the  honored  president.  In  1882  the  depositors  in 
Colonel  Goddard's  bank  numbered  26.988  ;  in  1885  they  numbered 
27,879— an  increase  of  only  991  in  the  last  three  years  of  license, 
when  business  was  presumably  '  arranged  '  to  tho  satisfaction  of 
these  petitioners.  Under  the  beneficent  rule  of  Prohibition  the  de- 
positors in  this  bank  have  increased  to  30,241— an  increase  of  2,361 
— a  nearly  300  per  cent,  increase  over  the  showing  of  the  three  lioensa 


RHODE   ISLAND.  211 

years.  Gentlemen  of  the  committee,  these  figures  were  not  '  cooked 
up  •  for  this  occasion,  bnt  were  taken  from  a  volume  published  by 
authority  of  the  State  and  prepared  by  Almon  K.  Goodwin,  State 
Auditor. 

"  In  view  of  these  figures,  which  prove  that  from  some  cause  or 
other  the  beginning  of  the  great  prosperity  of  this  State  was  coinci« 
dent  with  the  adoption  of  Prohibition,  for  competent  business  men 
to  assert  that  the  Amendment  has  '  disarranged  business  '  is  as  foolish 
OS  it  is  false. 

REAL   ESTATE   AND    PERSONAL   PROPERTY. 

'  Then,  again,  they  assert  that  the  Amendment  has  '  depreciated 
the  price  of  real  estate.'  In  what  section  of  the  city  or  State  has 
this  depreciation  occurred  ?  Why  is  it  that  the  assessors  of  taxes 
have  not  learned  of  this  falling  o£f  in  values  ?  The  facts  of  the  case 
are  that  the  value  of  real  estate  in  this  city  has  increased  $8,000,000 
since  1885.  The  exact  figures  are,  as  furnished  by  the  Assessors' 
office  :  1885,  $92,887,400  ;  1888,  $100,915,800.  Somebody  may  say 
that  the  valuation  has  been  raised  arbitrarily  to  provide  for  greater 
revenue,  and  that  this  accounts  for  the  increase.  That  argument 
would  not  hold,  however,  in  regard  to  personal  property.  The  valu- 
ation of  the  personal  property  in  this  city  in  1885  was  $31,314,600  ; 
in  1888  it  had  grown  to  $35,837,840,  an  increase  of  $3,500,000,  or 
11  per  cent,  in  three  years. 

'*  It  is  a  fact  patent  to  everybody  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
secure  a  store  in  tho  business  part  of  ProvidencH  ;  that  rents  are  in. 
creasing  every  year,  and  that  vacant  houses  are  the  exception  and 
not  the  rule  in  any  portion  of  the  city.  I  will  assert  without  fear  of 
contradiction  that  not  one  of  these  Resubmissionists  would  sell  a 
foot  of  his  property  in  tho  business  portion  of  Providence  at  the 
assessed  value  of  three  years  ago. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  are  ready  to  admit 
that  Prohibition  has  been  altogether  a  failure  in  this  State,  even 
with  the  lax  enforcement  which  it  has  experienced.  The  enemies  of 
Prohibition  are  constantly  asserting,  and  its  friends  are  too  ready  to 
admit  that  Prohibition,  as  it  has  so  far  existed,  has  increased  drunken  • 
ness  rather  than  decreased  it.  Statistics  prove  that  this  is  not  trae  ; 
and  even  if  it  were  true,  it  would  be  no  proof  that  this  Amendment 
'  is  incapable  of  enforcement. '  Because  the  State  of  Bhode  Island 
possesses  an  old  and  miserable  State  Ilouse,  and  has  never  had  a 
better  one,  is  no  proof  that  she  never  will  have  a  better  one.     Ba* 


27*^  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

cause  the  city  of  Providence,  at  the  rate  it  is  now  filling  the  cove, 
would  still  have  a  cove  a  hundred  years  hence,  is  no  argument  that 
the  cove  can  never  be  filled.  I  know  and  you  know,  gentlemen  of 
the  committee,  that  it  can  be  filled  in  two  years.  Prohibition  has 
been  enforced.     What  has  been  done  can  be  done  again. 

DECREASE   OP   ABBESTS. 

"  As  bad  as  the  situation  is  and  has  been  in  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence, there  has  been  progress.  Prohibition  has  been  law  in  this 
State  two  years  and  six  months  on  January  1st  last.  The  arrests  for 
drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct  in  Providence  during  that 
period  were  9,323.  The  last  two  years  and  a  half  under  license 
showed  arrests  for  the  same  causes  amounting  to  11,304— a  falling 
o£f  of  just  2,000  in  two  years  and  a  half.  A  law  that  will  accom- 
plish so  much  simply  by  its  deterring  effect,  and  in  the  face  of 
flagrant  inactivity  on  the  part  of  the  police— such  a  law  is  not 
*  incapable  of  enforcement.' 

"  The  New  York  Tribune  of  January  9th,  1887,  commenting  edi- 
torially on  the  fact  that  arrests  for  drunkenness  had  fallen  off  more 
than  40  per  cent,  in  the  first  six  months  of  Prohibition,  says  :  *  A  law 
that  accomplished  that  much  is  a  good  law.  We  would  be  glad  to 
have  in  this  city  a  measure  that  would  reduce  the  amount  of  crime 
— pocket-picking,  burglary,  arson,  "boodling"  or  what  not — as 
largely  as  the  Prohibition  act  has  decreased  drunkenness  and  its 
attendant  evils  in  Providence,  and  no  one  would  deny  the  value  of 
such  a  law.' 

"  A  law  which  has  accomplished  so  much  cannot  truthfully  be  said 
to  be  *  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the  State.'  " 

The  world  knows  the  rest  of  the  story.  In  order  to 
win  the  liquor  vote,  against  the  protest  of  numbers  of 
the  best  citizens,  the  Legislature,  on  May  Slst,  1889, 
voted  to  resubmit  the  Prohibitory  Amendment  to  popu- 
lar vote  on  June  20th,  allowing  less  than  three  weeks 
for  discussion.  A  stringent  ballot-reform  law  had  been 
passed  by  the  previous  Legislature,  providing  for  a 
secret  ballot  and  the  severe  punishment  of  bribery. 
This  law  was  to  go  into  effect  on  June  Ist.     The  Legis- 


RHODE   ISLAND.  9W 

lature  which  resubmitted  the  Proliibitory  Amendment, 
at  the  same  time  amended  the  ballot-reform  law,  so  that 
it  should  not  take  effect  till  J  une  30th,  ten  days  after 
the  vote  on  Prohibition.  The  fact  that  such  means 
were  needed  to  secure  its  repeal  is  very  good  testimony 
to  the  excellence  of  the  law 

Of  this  whole  proceeding,  Hon.  Henry  B.  Metcalf, 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Kepnl)lioan  Party  of  Rhode 
Island,  said  : 

**  I  think  the  characterization  of  the  recent  action  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  Rhode  Island  as  *  outrageons  *  to  be  fully  justified  by 
facts.  I  cannot  imagine  any  valid  defence  or  apology  therefor.  The 
meanness  of  the  conditions  of  the  act,  allowing  no  time  for  discus- 
sion, suspending  the  action  of  the  new  ballot  law  and  fixing  the  elec- 
tion at  the  worst  possible  time  for  farmers,  would  disgrace  a  Tam- 
many caucus.  The  active  friends  of  the  Amendment  are  weary,  have 
but  very  little  available  money,  and  have  no  well-united  organization 
tot  prompt  and  effective  work.  But  a  good  deal  has  been  begun 
"JIhiring  the  last  twenty-four  hours  that  promises  good  results,  although 
distinct  plans  are  not  yet  formulated.  If  we  can  awaken  the  people 
we  can  and  will  win.  By  "Wednesday  or  Thursday  next  I  am  expect- 
ing, rather  confidently,  to  be  able  to  report  considerable  progress. 
I  shall  throw  my  entire  strength  into  the  work,  but  have  to  regret 
the  limitations  of  it. 

"  That  this  experience  will  lead  to  better  organization  for  future 
work  I  have  no  doubt,  but  now  we  must  strike  without  much  orguni- 
zation,  and  depend  upon  fervor  rather  than  wait  for  the  machinery 
or  method  that  is  so  needful." 

The  repeal  of  the  Prohibitory  Amendment,  in  such 
circumstances,  simply  shows  the  po>yer  of  unscrupulons 
political  combinations.  All  the  facts  we  liave  on  the 
economic  conditions  indicate  valuable  results  for  public 
order  and  financial  prosperity  from  even  very  imperfect 
Prohibition. 

Since  the  return  to  High  License,  a  great  cry  of  dis- 
tress is  goincr  up  from  the  Statr.      Tim  Pnwtuckct  GnzHI*' 


274  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

and  Chronicle^  a  strong  Republican  daily  paper,  says, 
in  its  issue  of  October  18th,  1889  : 

**  The  citizens  of  Rhode  Island  cannot  have  forgotten  the  rather 
profuse  assurances  that  were  given  them  only  a  few  months  ago, 
that  when  the  demon  of  Prohibition  should  have  been  exorcised 
from  the  body  politic,  once  more  would  the  State  of  Rhode  Island 
rejoice  in  a  government  by  law. 

"  Nor  will  they  readily  forget  with  what  unction  the  advocates  of 
a  repeal  of  Prohibition  deplored  the  demoralizing  influences  of  a 
law  that  was  at  variance  with  public  opinion  and,  therefore,  in- 
capable of  enforcement,  thereby  destroying  popular  respect  for  all 
law. 

••  If  we  mistake  not,  the  proposed  conditions  of  righteousness 
have  been  fulfilled,  and  law  has  been  made  in  entire  harmony  with 
that  class  of  public  opinion  represented  in  the  demand  for  repeal  of 
Prohibition. 

"  Who  says  that  law  is  either  enforced  or  respected  to-day  in  either 
Pawtucket  or  Providence  ?  Is  liquor  being  sold  only  according  to 
law  in  either  city  ?  How  many  law-breaking  liquor-sellers  have  b^en 
arrested  ? 

"  There  are  laws  and  ordinances  against  drunkenness,  and  it  is  the 
sworn  duty  of  officials  to  enforce  these  laws  and  ordinances.  Is  one 
driinken  man  arrested  out  of  every  ten  that  reel  by  our  policemen  ? 

"  Will  somebody  tell  us  the  conditions  under  which  law  may  be 
permitted  to  be  enforced  ?     Or  is  it  best  to  annul  all  law  ?" 

Tlie  Gazetts  and  Chronicle  in  its  same  issue  makes 
this  significant  remark  : 

**  Political  prostitution  is  one  of  the  choice  outgrowths  of  the 
beautiful  and  '  restrictive '  rum  law. " 

The  same  paper  said,  September  20th  : 

"  More  drunken  men  were  seen  on  our  streets  during  the  past 
week  than  were  seen  here  in  the  three  years  of  the  non-enforced 
Prohibitory  law.' ' 

The  Pawtucket  Record  said,  about  the  same  time  : 

"  It  has  been  said  or  written  that  Prohibition  was  detrimental  to 
business.     Yes,  we  think  it  did  injure  the  mm  basinem  ;  at  anj 


RHODE    ISLAND.  275 

rate,  it  appears  to  be  prospering  under  the  bonefloial  inflaenM  of 

license." 

The  Newport  Daily  News  said,  September  28th  : 

"  Drunkenness  is  increasing,  and  it  appears  to  be  the  general 
sentiment  of  the  commnnity  that  no  more  liquor  licenses  nhoald  b« 
granted.  Men  under  the  influence  of  lit|uor,  but  not  in  any  way 
unable  to  reach  their  destination,  are  seen  on  any  hand  by  the  police 
and  others." 

The  Newport  Enterprise  (Tnd.)  said  in  its  issue  for 
October  8d  : 

"  They  [the  people]  went  back  to  license,  and  before  the  winter  is 
out  they  will  find  things  worse  than  ever.  There  will  be  about 
seventy  rum-shops  now  ;  and  it  is  a  poor  place  that  does  not  take  in 
$60  a  week.  That  is  $4,200  a  week  for  nil.  and  a  quarter  of  a  milUon 
a  yeat^  spent  in  Newport  for  intoxicating  liquors  that  ought  to  go  to 
grocers,  bakers,  huichej^s,  and  other  respectable  s'ores.  The  trades- 
men will  see  the  beauty  of  liceuso  and  rum  this  winter  when  they 
try  to  collect  their  bills.  The  city  will  get  $25,000,  and  ten  times 
that  amount  will  go  into  the  pockets  of  the  rumsellers,  who  will  send 
half  of  it  out  of  the  State,  and  spend  more  of  the  other  half  in  buying 
up  the  houses  of  honest  citizens  ruined  by  bad  debts  that  might  have 
been  paid  if  men  had  drunk  less  rum.  There  is  no  need  of  elec- 
tioneering ;  the  drunken  men  reeling  round  the  streets  will  do  all 
that,  and  if  Local  Option  is  put  before  the  people  in  the  spring,  it 
would  not  surprise  us  to  see  it  carried,  to  stay.     Wait !" 


CHAPTEE  XYII. 

ATLANTA. 

"  Not  a  dollar  of  capital  has  gone  from  our  city,  or  is  going,  unless 
it's  liquor  capital.  We  want  all  that  sort  of  capital  to  go." — SencUor 
Colquitl  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  February  23d,  1886. 

'*  Take  the  fact  of  owning  houses.  Artemus  Ward  says  :  '  A  man 
luiiy  (lie  for  his  home,  but  who  ever  heard  of  a  man  dying  for  his 
boarding  house  ?  '  I  say  to  you  here,  it's  the  poor  man's  home,  and 
the  poor  man's  home  alono,  that  has  stood  time  and  again  between 
Jay  Gould  and  Vanderbilt  and  the  enraged  mob  of  American  work- 
ingmen.  It  is  the  conservatism  of  the  home-owning  wage-worker 
that  has  kept  Socialism  out  of  the  admirable  labor  organizations.  In 
the  last  two  years  there  have  been  six  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
citizens  who  have  become  home-ownera,  against  one  hundred  and 
fifty-three  in  the  two  years  previous  -citizens  owing  no  man  and 
owning  no  man  as  master,  wearing  the  collar  of  no  faction,  free-born 
American  citizens,  not  quibbling  about  personal  liberty,  but  stand- 
ing with  wife  and  little  ones,  honest  and  independent,  above  penury 
and  degradation  !     [Applause.]— i/e/ir^  W.  Orady. 

The  city  of  Atlanta,  Ga.,  with  a  population  of  some 
75,000,  has  now  tried  Low  License,  Prohibition,  and 
High  License.  In  November,  1885,  the  city  voted  for 
a  Prohibitory  ordinance,  which  took  effect  July  Ist, 
1886.  By  the  construction  of  this  law,  however,  the 
wholesale  liquor  houses  did  not  shut  up  till  some  six 
months  later,  and  a  few  wine  rooms  selling  so-called 
*'  native  wines"  were  allowed  to  continue  in  operation. 
But  the  saloons  were  abolished  July  1st,  1886.  Pro- 
hibition continued  in  force  till  January  1st,  1888.     The 


ATLANTA.  277 

beneficial  effects  of  the  law  were  very  marked,  as  will 

1)0  seen  by  the  followinf^  striking  despatch 

FROM  ATLANTA'S   MAYOR. 

REFUTATION  OP  REPORTS  IN  NORTHERN  PAPERS— QUIET  STBESTB  AOT)  BAPPT 
HOMES — DECREASE  OF   CRIME  AND  GENERAL  PROSPEBTTT. 

During  the  campaiga  of  188G,  despatches  were  extensively  pub- 
lished for  political  eifect  in  Northern  papers  charging  that  the  Pro- 
hibitory law  in  Atlanta  was  practically  a  nullity,  antl  that  die  '*  jug 
trade"  had  become  about  the  only  important  industry  of  the  city. 
To  meet  these  statements.  The  Daily  Voice  telegraphed  to  Mayor 
Hillyer,  who  replied  as  follows  : 

"  Atlanta,  Ga,  ,  October  2G.— I  wish  to  say  that  in  the  bar-room  days 
drunkenness  was  common  and  not  always  noticed.  The  police  were 
less  attentive  and  many  escaped  arrest.  Now,  if  a  man  gets  drunk, 
or  partly  drunk,  it  attracts  attention.  The  police  are  active  and 
vigilant,  and  arrests  are  nearly  certain  to  follow  any  indications  of 
illicit  sale.  The  figures  in  the  police  oflBce  show  that  the  arrests  for 
disorder  and  drunkenness  last  Saturday  and  Sunday  were  22  ;  the 
corresponding  days  in  1885  such  arrests  numbered  31,  and  in  1884, 
25.  Many  of  the  cases  occurring  at  present  are  chargeable  to  the  use 
of  domestic  wine,  which  is  not  prohibited,  and  which,  it  is  said,  is 
often  '  doctored.'  The  figures  in  the  express  office  show  that  hardly 
one  jug  or  demijohn  is  shipped  per  one  thousand  inhabitants,  and 
all  exaggerated  reports  are  to  be  condemned.  The  good  effects  of 
Prohibition  here  are  apparent.  Trade  in  all  branches,  except  the 
whiskey  traffic,  is  prospering.  There  is  marked  improvement  in  the 
habits,  the  morals,  and  the  happiness  of  the  people.  Increased 
prosperity  is  admitted  and  rejoiced  in,  both  as  to  private  and  public 
affairs.  The  attitude  of  the  newspapers  throughout  the  Union  is 
greatly  to  be  deprecated.  Scores  and  hundreds  of  facts  prove  the 
efficacy  of  the  law.  Atlanta  now  has  peaceful  streets  and  happy 
homes,  with  sober  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers,  with  plenty  to  eat 
and  to  wear,  where  before  there  were  broken  hearts,  fear  of  domeelio 
outrage,  and  sometime!*  actual  want.  The  great  daily  press  abroad 
says  nothing  of  the  great  good  that  has  resulted,  but  if  a  hand  track 
load  of  jugs  is  seen  (which  is  no  great  matter  to  sixty  thousand 
people)  this  must  be  magnified  into  a  *  jug  train,'  and  the  whole 
)>reKH  of  the  United  States  made  to  ring  with  it. 


278  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

'*  There  is  not  one-tenth  as  much  of  intoxicants  drunk  in  Atlanta 
now  as  there  was  a  year  ago,  possibly  much  less  than  that.  Formerly 
the  advocates  of  bar-rooms  were  numerous  and  powerful,  now  nobody 
advocates  their' restoration.  Formerly  the  temperance  issue  was  High 
License  ;  now,  the  very  most  that  the  opponents  to  toUd  Prohibition  would 
contend  for  is  High  License.  The  bar  room  niiisance  has  gone  out 
from  Atlanta  forever,  and  we  would  like  all  the  world  to  know  it. 

"  We  are  determined  to  give  total  Prohibition  a  fair  trial  under  the 
law,  and  are  greatly  strengthened  and  encouraged  with  it  so  far. 
Our  people  are  already  practically  united  in  the  belief  that  the  bar- 
room wfll  never  come  back.  I  only  wish  that  the  outside  world  could 
see  the  truth  as  we  have  it  demonstrated  here.  They  would  thus 
escape  the  danger  of  being  misled  by  the  many  exaggerated  and 
prejudiced  rumors  that  are  published  in  other  States  on  the  subject. 

"  George  Hillyer, 
"  Mayor  of  Atlanta. 

The  mayor's  hopes  were  not  realized.  Prohibition  in 
Atlanta  was  succeeding  too  well.  There  was  the  greatest 
danger  that  it  would  disprove  the  favorite  proposition 
of  the  liquor-dealers  and  their  sympathizers,  that  *'  Pro- 
hibition could  never  be  enforced  in  a  large  city."  It 
was  enforced  in  Atlanta,  and  the  city  was  prosperous 
and  rejoicing.  Something  must  be  done.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  whole  liquor  power  of  the  nation 
is  one,  concentrated  in  one  National  Liquor  Dealers' 
Protective  Association.  This  tremendous  power  con- 
centrated upon  the  city  among  the  Georgia  mountains. 
The  nation  almost  held  its  breath  to  watch  the  unequal  \ 
contest.  Henry  W.  Grady,  brave,  eloquent,  and  true- 
hearted,  toiled  and  plead  for  Prohibition  with  all  his 
matchless  power.  The  Atlanta  Constitution,  of  which 
he  was  editor,  had  a  divided  influence,  his  partner  being 
for  High  License.  But  on  June  2l8t,  1887,  one  year 
after  Prohibition  had  taken  effect  in  Atlanta,  the  Co?i- 
stitution  printed  the  following  editorial  : 


ATLANTA.  279 


**  The  election  at  which  Prohibition  was  pat  on  trial  in  this 
city  is  entitled  to  a  place  among  great  events.  No  election 
of  a  local  nature  was  ever  before  held  in  a  citj  of  00,000 
people  in  which  more  was  involved.  The  changes  proposed 
by  it  were  so  radical  as  to  be  almost  revolutionary.  Over 
100  business  houses  were  to  be  closed.  Nearly  600  men 
were  to  be  forced  to  give  up  a  chosen  employment.  The 
city  treasury  was  to  be  left  with  $40,000  less  revenue. 
Trade  amounting  annually  to  millions  was  to  be  turned  away 
from  the  city.  Many  large  business  houses  were  to  be  left  un- 
rented.  Of  course,  a  movemefit  proposing  measures  so  radical 
met  with  the  most  spirited  and  determined  opposition.  Many 
of  our  best  citizens  regarded  it  with  outspoken  disfavor. 

**  It  was  said  that  Prohibition  in  a  city  so  large  as  this  was 
impracticable  ;  that  it  would  not  prohibit  ;  that  the  trade  would 
be  injured  ;  that  taxes  wonld  be  increased  ;  that  the  stores  in 
which  the  liquor  business  was  carried  on  would  not  be  rented 
for  other  purposes  ;  that  the  same  amount  of  whiskey  would  bo 
drunk  with  the  law  as  without  it,  the  city  would  only  miss  the 
revenue  ;  that  it  would  be  a  death-blow  to  Atlanta's  progress. 

**  It  has  now  been  eighteen  months  since  the  election,  and 
twelve  months  since  the  law  went  into  effect.  Wo  are  prepared 
thus  from  observation  to  note  results. 

PROHIBITION    DOES    PROHIBIT. 

**  Prohibition  in  this  city  does  prohibit.  The  law  is  ob- 
served as  well  as  the  law  against  carrying  concealed  weapons, 
gambling,  theft,  and  other  offences  of  like  character.  If  there 
had  been  as  many  people  in  favor  of  carrying  concealed  weap- 
ons, theft,  gambling,  etc.,  as  there  were  in  favor  of  the  retail 
of  ardent  spirits  twelve  months  ago,  law  against  these  things 
would  not  have  been  carried  out  as  well  as  it  was  against  the 
liquor  trade.  In  consideration  of  the  small  majority  vrlth 
which  Prohibition  was  carried  and  the  large  number  of  people 


280  ECOJ^'OillCS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

who  were  opposed  to  seeing  it  prohibit,  the  law  has  been  mar- 
vellously well  observed. 

BUSINESS    IMPROVED    UNDER    THE    LAW. 

"  Prohibition  has  not  injured  the  city  financially.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Assessors'  books,  property  in  the  city  has  increased 
over  $2,000,000.  Taxes  have  not  been  increased.  Two 
streets  in  the  city,  Decatur  and  Peters,  were  known  as  liquor 
streets.  It  was  hardly  considered  proper  for  a  lady  to  walk 
these  streets  without  an  escort.  Now  they  are  just  as  orderly 
as  any  in  the  city.  Property  on  them  has  advanced  from  10 
to  25  per  cent.  The  loss  of  $40,000  revenue  consequent  on 
closing  the  saloons  has  tended  in  no  degree  to  impede  the  city's 
progress  in  any  direction.  Large  appropriations  have  been 
made  to  the  water-works,  the  public  schools,  the  Piedmont 
Fair,  and  other  improvements.  The  business  men  have  raised 
$400,000  to  build  the  Atlanta  and  Havvkinsville  Railroad.  The 
number  of  city  banks  is  to  be  increased  to  five.  The  coming 
of  four  new  railroads  has  been  settled  during  the  year.  Fifteen 
new  stores  containing  house- furnishing  goods  have  been  started 
ttince  Prohibition  went  into  effect.  These  are  doing  well. 
More  furniture  has  been  sold  to  mechanics  and  laboring  men  in 
the  last  twelve  months  than  in  any  twelve  months  during  the 
history  of  the  city.  The  manufacturing  establishments  of  the 
city  have  received  new  life.  A  glass  factory  has  been  built. 
A  cotton-seed  oil  mill  is  being  built  worth  $125,000.  All  im- 
provement companies  with  a  basis  in  real  estate  have  seen  their 
stock  doubled  in  value  since  the  election  on  Prohibition. 

FORMER    SALOONS    NOW    OCCUPIED    BY    TRADESMEN. 

**  Stores  in  which  the  liquor  trade  was  conducted  are  not 
vacant,  but  arc  now  occupied  by  other  lines  of  trade.  Accord- 
ing to  the  real  estate  men  more  laborers  and  men  of  limited 
means  are  buying  lots  than  ever  before.  Rents  are  more 
promptly  paid  than  formerly.     More  houses  are  rented  by  the 


ATLANTA.  ?81 

/ 
same  number  of  families  than  heretofore.  Before  Prohibition, 
sometimes  as  many  as  three  families  would  live  in  one  bouse. 
The  heads  of  those  families  now  not  spending  their  money  for 
drink  are  each  able  to  rent  a  house,  thus  using  three  instead  of 
one.  Workingmen  who  formerly  spent  a  great  part  of  their 
money  for  liquor,  now  spend  it  in  food  and  clothes  for  their 
families.  The  retail  grocery  men  sell  more  goods  and  collect 
their  bills  better  than  ever  before.  Thus  they  are  able  to  settle 
more  promptly  with  the  wholesale  men. 

INCREASED    SALES    OF    LEGITIMATE    GOODS. 

**  A  perceptible  increase  has  been  noticed  in  the  number  of 
people  who  ride  on  street  cars.  According  to  the  coal-dealers, 
many  people  bought  coal  and  stored  it  away  last  winter  who 
had  never  been  known  to  do  so  before.  Others,  who  had  been 
accustomed  to  buying  two  or  three  tons  on  time,  this  last 
winter  bought  seven  or  eight  and  paid  cash  for  it.  A  leading 
proprietor  of  a  millinery  store  said  that  he  had  sold  more  hats 
and  bonnets  to  laboring  men  for  their  wives  and  daughters 
than  before  in  the  history  of  his  business.  Contractors  say 
their  men  do  better  work,  and  on  Saturday  evenings,  when  they 
receive  their  week's  wages,  spend  the  same  for  flour,  hams,  dry 
goods,  or  other  necessary  things  for  their  families.  Thus  they 
are  in  better  spirit<<,  have  more  hope,  and  are  not  inclmed  to 
strike  and  growl  about  higher  wages. 

IMPROVEJIENT    IN    THE    SCHOOL    CHILDREN. 

"  Attendance  upon  the  public  schools  has  increased.  The 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  said  in  his  report  to  the 
Board  of  Education,  made  January  1st,  1887  : 

**  *  During  the  past  year  it  has  become  a  subject  of  remark  by 
teachers  in  the  schools  and  by  visitors,  that  the  children  were 
more  tidy,  were  better  dressed,  were  better  shod,  and  presented 
a  neater  appearance  than  ever  before.  Less  trouble  htiA  been 
experienced  in  having  parents  purchase  books  required  by  the 


282  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

\ 

rules,  fewer  children  have  been  withdrawn  to  aid  in  supporting 
the  family,  the  higher  classes  in  the  grammar  schools  have 
been  fuller,  and  more  children  have  been  promoted  to  the  high 
schools,  both  male  and  female,  than  ever  before  in  the  history 
of  the  schools.  All  these  indications  point  to  the  increased 
prosperity  of  the  city  and  to  the  growing  interest  in  the  cause 
of  education  on  the  part  of  the  people.' 

"  There  has  been  a  marked  increase  in  attendance  upon  the 
Sunday-schools  of  the  city.  This  is  especially  noticeable 
among  the  suburban  churches.  Many  children  have  started  to 
the  Sunday-schools  who  were  formerly  not  able  to  attend  for 
want  of  proper  clothing.  Attendance  upon  the  different  churches 
is  far  better.  From  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  people 
have  joined  the  various  churches  of  the  city  during  the  year. 

THE    MARKED  DECREASE    IN    CRIME. 

*'  The  determination  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  prohibit 
the  liquor  traffic  has  stimulated  a  disposition  to  do  away 
WITH  OTHER  EVILS.  The  Ittws  aguiust  gambling  are  rigidly 
enforced.  A  considerable  stock  of  gamblers'  tools  gathered 
together  by  the  police  for  several  years  past  was  recently  used 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  large  bonfire  on  one  of  the  un- 
occupied squares  of  the  city.  The  City  Council  has  refused 
longer  to  grant  licenses  to  bucket  shops,  thus  puttinjr  the  seal 
of  its  condemnation  upon  the  tiade  in  futures  of  all  kinds. 

**  All  these  reforms  have  had  a  decided  tendency  to  diminish 
crime.  Two  weeks  were  necessary  formerly  to  get  through  with 
the  criminal  docket.  During  the  present  year  it  was  closed  out 
in  two  days.  The  chain-gang  is  almost  left  with  nothing  but  the 
chains  and  the  balls.  The  gang  part  would  not  be  large  enough 
to  work  the  public  roads  of  the  country  were  it  not  augmented 
by  fresh  supplies  from  the  surrounding  counties.  The  city 
government  is  in  the  hands  of  our  best  citizens.  .   .   . 

**  Our  experience  has  demonstrated  to  us  beyond  a  doubt 
that  a   city   of  sixty   thousand   inhabitants  can  get  along  and 


ATLANTA.  288 

advance   at   a   solid   and    constant    rate   without    the    liquor 
traffic/' 

HENRY  W.  GEADY's  SPEECH. 

For  two  years  the  Prohibition  policy  had  been  main- 
tained in  Atlanta,  but  in  the  summer  of  1887  the  liquor 
men  began  to  take  steps  for  repeal.  By  November  of 
that  year  a  hot  fight  was  raging.  The  vote  on  repeal 
was  to  be  taken  in  the  latter  part  of  that  month. 

The  Constitution  was  then  under  the  joint  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Grady  and  Evan  P.  Howell.  Mr.  Howell 
was  an  uncompromising  Anti-Prohibitionist.  Mr.  Grady 
was  in  the  height  of  his  new-made  national  reputation 
as  a  political  orator.  He  was  young  and  ambitious,  and 
he  knew  full  well  the  dangers  besetting  public  men  who 
meddled  with  Prohibition.  The  great  Prohibitory 
Amendment  campaigns  had  just  closed  in  Texas  and 
Tennessee,  with  crushing  majorities  for  the  bar-rooms. 
The  national  liquor  power  had  announced  that  the  next 
thing  on  their  programme  was  to  obtain  the  repeal  of  the 
Prohibitory  law  m  Atlanta. 

Every  selfish  interest  seemed  to  dictate  a  conservative 
course  for  Mr.  Grady  in  the  Atlanta  campaign.  But  he 
madfi  an  independent  study  of  the  whole  situation,  be- 
came convinced  that  Prohibition  had  done  great  good, 
and  on  the  evening  of  November  3d  made  a  speech 
which  electrified  the  city  and  was  one  of  the  most  thrill- 
ing and  convincing  arguments  for  Prohibition  ever  de- 
livered. 

The  force  of  this  speech  was  in  its  eloquent  and 
pathetic  presentation  of  practical  testimony  about  the 
improvement  of  the  poor  under  the  reign  of  Prohibi- 
tion, the  great  decrease  in  the  number  of  distress  war- 
rants, the  disappearance  of  the  practice  of  gamislieeiDg 


284  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION'. 

wages,  the  change  of  sentiment  among  business  men  in 
favor  of  Prohibition,  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
school -going  children,  the  decrease  in  crime,  etc.* 

FROM  QRADY's  speech — DISTRESS  WARRANTS. 

Here  is  a  part  of  what  Mr.  Grady  said  on  the  subject 
of  distress  warrants  : 

"  Mr.  George  Adair  rents  houses  to  thirteen  hundred  tenants.  He 
states  that  he  has  issued  in  the  last  year  one  distress  warrant  where 
he  issued  twenty,  two  years  ago.  [Applause.]  I  claim  to  be  an  in- 
telligent man  with  some  courage  of  conviction  ;  but  I  pledge  you 
my  word,  if  that  one  fact  were  established  to  my  satisfaction  I  would 
vote  for  this  thing  if  I  never  heard  another  word  on  this  subject. 
Have  you  thought  what  that  means— a  distress  warrant?  It  means 
eviction  ;  it  means  the  very  thing  that  is  to-day  kindling  the  heart 
of  this  world  for  poor  Ireland.  It  means  eviction  I  It  means  turning 
woman  and  her  little  children  out  of  the  home  that  covers  them,  and 
to  which  they  are  entitled.  I  was  astonished  at  Colonel  Adair's 
statement.  Mr.  Tally,  who  rents  six  hundred  or  eight  hundred 
houses,  says  :  *  I  used  to  issue  two  or  three  distress  warrants -f oar 
or  live  -  a  month.  I  have  not  issued  a  single  one  in  eighteen 
months.'  [Applause]  Now,  both  of  them  are  Prohibitionists.  Let 
me  try  you  with  Harry  Krouse.  He  was  an  Anti  Prohibitionist.  He 
said  :  '  My  distress  warrants  averaged  thirty-six  to  the  year,  and  I 
have  not  issued  one  in  twelve  months.'     I  said  : 

*•*  Then,  my  friend,  I  don't  carry  your  conscience,  but  how  can 
you  be  an  Anti-Prohibitionist  ?  ' 

"  '  I  ain't.  My  knowledge  of  the  thing,  day  by  day,  among  people 
I  used  to  pester  and  evict  has  changed  my  convictions,  and  I  urn  a 
red-hot  Prohibitionist.' 

"  I  went  down  to  Mr.  Scott,  who  did  not  vote  for  Prohibition,  and 
asked  him.  He  said  :  '  I  have  issued  as  many  as  twenty-five  distress 
warrants  in  a  month,  and  I  have  issued  six  in  the  last  eighteen 
months,  and  five  were  to  get  people  out  of  houses  because  they  were 
obnoxious  to  the  neighbors.  I  have  issued  one  single  distress  war- 
rant for  failure  to  pay  rent.' 


♦  Prohibition  Leaflet.  "  Atlanta's  Throe  Policies." 


ATLANTA.  286 

"  I  said  :  '  Yon  didn't  Tote  for  Prohibition.' 

•*  He  said  :  '  I  did  not  believe  it  was  practicable.' 

"  I  asked  :  *  What  do  you  think  now  ?  ' 

"  He  said  :  '  I  am  going  to  vote,  and  vote  for  Prohibition.'  [Ap. 
plaase.] 

"  Mr.  Roberts  was  a  Prohibitionist  He  is  a  square  man  and  an 
iDtelligent  man,  and  is  running  for  Council,  which  is  a  good  sign. 
[Lft lighter  and  applause.]  He  says  :  *  My  testimony  is  the  same.  I 
formerly  issued  two  or  three  distress  warrants  every  month,  and  I 
have  not  issued  one  in  twelve  months.* 

THE  TEBBOBS  OF  EVICTZOK. 

"  Have  yon  ever  thought  about  a  woman  being  turned  out  of  her 
house— the  little  cottage  that  covers  her  and  her  children  ^  Can  you 
picture— you  who  live  in  comfortable  homes  filled  with  light  and 
warmth  and  books  and  joy — can  you  think  of  these  people — human 
beings,  our  brothers  and  sisters,  the  poor  mother,  brave  though  her 
heart  is  breaking,  huddling  her  little  children  about  her,  and  the 
father,  weak  but  loving,  and  loving  all  the  deeper  because  he  knows 
his  weakness  has  brought  them  to  this  want  and  deoradation,  and 
little  children,  those  of  whom  our  Saviour  said  :  '  SuflFer  them  to 
come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not ' — there  asking,  '  Mamma,  where 
will  we  sleep  to-night  ?  * — can  you  picture  that  and  then  their  taking 
themselves  up  and  the  woman  putting  her  hand  with  undying  love 
and  faith  in  the  hand  of  the  man  she  swore  to  fallow  through  good 
and  evil  report,  and  marchiug  up  and  down  the  street  this  pitiable 
procession— through  the  unthinking  streets,  by  laughing  children  and 
shining  windows,  looking  for  a  hole  where,  like  the  foxes,  they  may 
hide  their  poor  heads  ? 

**  My  friends,  they  talk  to  you  about  personal  liberty,  that  a  man 
should  have  the  right  to  go  into  a  grog  shop  and  see  this  pitiable 
procession  -now  stopped— parading  up  and  down  our  streets  again. 
They  talk  to  you  about  the  shades  of  Washington,  Monroe,  and 
Jefferson.  I  would  not  give  one  happy,  rosy  little  woman,  uplifted 
from  that  degradation — happy  again  in  her  home,  with  the  cricket 
chirping  on  her  hearthstone  and  her  children  about  her  knee,  her 
husband  redeemed  from  drink  at  her  side— I  would  not  give  one  of 
them  for  all  the  shades  of  all  the  men  that  ever  contended  since 
Cataline  conspired  and  Csesar  fought !  " 

At  the  end  of  this  sentence  there  was  tremendous 


286  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

cheering.     Men  and  women  waved  tlieir  handkerchiefs, 
some  of  them  standing  up. 


•*  All  of  U  means  simply  this,  that  where  Mr.  Adair,  renting  to  all 
Horts  of  people,  issued  twenty  distress  warrants  a  year  ago.  he  issues 
one  now  ;  it  means  that  out  of  every  twenty  families  evicted  two 
j-ears  ago  there  are  nineteen  happy  in  their  homes  to-night.  [Ap- 
plause.] And  yet  we  are  told  we  must  vote  to  restore  the  old  order 
because  it  has  reduced  Governor  Brown's  rental  column  $5,000  a 
year !"     [Applause.] 

At  the  end  of  this  sentence  the  scene  was  almost  in- 
describable. Thousands  of  handkerchiefs  waved  as  be- 
fore, men  held  up  their  hats  on  walking  sticks  and 
whirled  them  in  the  air.  The  cheering  was  almost 
deafening. 

*'  My  friends,  I  don't  believe  that  statement,  to  begin  with.  I  do 
not  believe  his  rent  income  is  fairly  and  permanently  diminished 
$5,000  a  year  ;  and  if  it  is,  he  is  my  friend,  and  I  congratulate  both 
him  and  myself  on  the  fact  that  he  is  able  to  stand  it.  I  say  this  in 
no  spirit  of  sarcasm  or  criticism,  but  I  do  say  if  there  is  a  law,  if 
there  is  a  governmental  theory,  if  there  is,  may  it  please  you,  an  un- 
tried experiment  that  will  shelter  one  honest  woman  and  two  uncon- 
scious children  in  their  homes,  it  is  our  duty  to  vote  that  law  and 
this  Government's  duty  to  enforce  it,  though  it  should  cut  it  down 
125,000.  [Tremendous  applause.!  And  the  reason  for  that  is  not 
based  in  communism,  but  in  humanity.  If  the  Government  owes 
any  duty  to  the  individual,  it  is  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
that  leads  an  honest  life  is  entitled  to  food  and  shelter  ;  and  if  there 
is  a  difference  to  be  found  between  diminishing  the  luxury  of  the 
rich,  or  protecting  the  poor  in  their  birthright,  it  is  manliness  and 
humanity  and  good  government  to  let  the  rich  suffer.     [Applause  ] 

'•  Now,  I  have  talked  to  you  about  the  rent,  about  the  house  that  a 
man  and  his  wife  live  in  ;  I  have  shown  yon,  not  by  my  own  asser- 
tion,  but  by  the  statements  of  the  only  experts  in  the  city — the  real 
estate  men.  who  for  years  have  handled  from  three  thousand  to  four 
thousand  houses — I  have  shown  you,  I  say,  that  where  twenty  suf- 
fered before,  nineteen  are  protected  under  '  Prohibition  that  don't 


ATLANTA.  SJb7 

prohibit.'     What  would  we  have  with  Prohibition  that  did  pro- 
hibit?" 

Upon  other  aspects  of  the  improvement  of  the  poor, 
Mr.  Grady  said,  in  part  : 

NO   MORE   GARNI8HEEING. 

"  The  next  step  is  to  get  our  employers  and  ask  their  testimony. 
I  went  to  Mr.  Boyd,  of  Van  Winkle  <k  Co.,  and  he  said  :  '  Where  I 
formerly  had  ten  or  fifteen  garnishments  at  a  time  to  answer,  I  now 
have  none.* 

"  The  garnishment,  next  to  the  distress  warrant,  is  the  most  in- 
iquitous form  of  debt  collection.  It  means  that  the  law  lays  its 
hand  on  a  man's  wages  and  holds  them  in  its  grasp,  though  his 
little  children  may  clamber  about  his  knees  and  cry  for  bread. 

•'  Mr.  Boyd  is  a  Prohibitionist  ;  let  me  give  you  Grant  Wilkins. 
He  is  a  man  of  profound  convictions.  You  can  cut  him  up  into 
postage-stamps  and  he  will  not  deny  a  thing  he  thought  was  right. 
He  said  he  was  one  of  the  most  violent,  if  that  word  may  be  used, 
of  the  Anti-Prohibitionists.  He  said  :  '  I  have  told  them  I  was  not 
going  to  attend  their  "  Anti  "  meetings,  that  I  did  not  intend  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  it  this  time  ;  I  came  to  that  conclusion  simply 
because  I  work  two  hundred  and  twenty  men,  and  I  see  what  Pro- 
hibition has  done  for  them,  and  I  believe  my  duty  requires  I  should 
let  it  alone.  My  foreman  goes  to  their  homes  and  sees  them  ;  they 
live  better,  their  houses  are  better,  they  have  shoes  where  they  were 
shoeless,  and  they  have  plenty  to  eat  where  they  formerly  barely 
lived.  I  have  had  thirty  garnishments  tit  once  in  my  shop,  and  I 
have  been  running  seven  months,  and  I  have  not  answered  one 
single  garnishment.' 

"That  is  the  first  time  in  along  and  pleasant  friendfhip  that  I 
have  known  Grant  to  acknowledge  he  was  wrong.  I  could  absolutely 
weary  you  with  testimony  like  that.     [Cries  of  *  Go  on  ! '] 

CX)KVEBTBD  AGAINST  TH£IB  OONTICTIOK8. 

"  There  is  a  man— I  cannot  give  his  name.  Colonel  Maddox  knows 
him— he  is  a  member  of  the  Anti  Prohibition  Committee  ;  he  is  one 
of  the  largest  manufacturers  in  this  city,  and,  as  a  rule,  his  associates 
are  against  Prohibition.  He  went  into  Colonel  Maddox'a  office,  and 
Colonel  Maddox  slapped  him  on  the  shoulder  and  said  : 

"  '  Hello,  ALti.' 


288  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

"  *  No,  sir  ;  not  much. ' 

"  *  You  are  printed  that  waj',*  said  Colonel  Maddox. 

'*'  It's  wrong,'  he  said. 

*'  What  changed  him?  The  marked  and  undoubted  improvement 
in  the  working  people.     He  said  : 

"  '  My  wife  and  I  rode  out  Decatur  Street  the  other  day.  I  looked 
at  the  street  and  the  improved  condition  down  there,  and  said  : 
'*  My  dear,  1  am  a  Prohibitionist  from  this  time  forward."  '  He  was 
converted  against  his  convictions. 

'*  Mr.  Riordan  was  an  Anti-Prohibitionist  in  the  last  race.  He 
came  into  Colonel  Maddox's  ofi&ce— by  the  way,  Colonel  Maddox's 
office  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  a  place  for  them  to  come.  Mr.  Riordan 
says  :  *  I  was  an  Anti-Prohibitionist  on  principle' -a personal  liberty 
man,  I  suppose — 'but  I  woik  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  men,  and  1 
have  seen  a  change  that  as  an  honest  man  I  dare  not  disregard,  and 
I  am  for  Prohibition.' 

••  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  how  can  you  answer  such  as  that  ?  I  am 
not  a  profound  lawyer.  I  don't  know  how  much  personal  liberty  I 
have  got.  Sometimes  I  wish  I  had  more  [looking  with  a  smile  at 
Mrs.  Grady,  who  sat  in  the  audience] .  That  is  purely  a  personal 
matter  to  which  we  need  not  allude  further.  I  don't  want  any  pro- 
found knowledge  of  law  that  clouds  my  brain  and  judgment  when 
such  facts  appeal  to  me  !" 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Grady  said  : 

INCREASE  IN  THE  SCHOOL  POPU;,ATION. 

"  There  are  eight  hundred  and  twenty-nine  more  children  in  at- 
tendance at  the  schools  this  year  than  last.  How  do  you  account 
for  that  ?  [Laughter.]  It  has  been  two  years  since  Prohibition  was 
adopted,  and  there  are  eight  hundred  and  twenty-nine  more  children 
in  the  schools.  That  means  one  of  two  things,  and  you  can  take 
either  horn  of  the  dilemma  :  either  there  are  more  people  here  or 
there  are  more  people  able  to  send  to  school. 

DECREA.8E  OF   CRIME. 

"  My  friend,  Mr.  Hooper  Alexander,  whom  I  once  at  the  polls 
irreverently  called  Hoopee,  has  sent  me  a  note  in  which  he  says  : 

"  '  I  see  you  are  on  statistics.  If  it  is  worth  noticing,  I  can  add  a 
few.     I  examined  the  oity  ooart  criminal  docket  this  afternoon,  and 


ATLANTA.  289 

it  shows  a  marked  and  steady  increnso  in  misdemeanors  from  1881 
to  1885  ;  ft  falling  off  of  20  per  cent,  in  1886  ;  the  record  of  1887 
shows  313  iudictiucuts  against  G75  iu  1885  and  440  in  1886.' 

"  Mark  that  An  increase  to  1885,  and  in  1886  there  was  a  de- 
crease from  675  oases  to  440.  That  was  with  the  experiment  only 
half  tried.  The  present  docket  extends  from  1881  to  1887.  Crime 
in  1887  less  than  half  that  of  1885,  and  less  than  any  year  of  the 
docket.     There  was  scarcely  a  case  of  vagrancy  for  a  year  past. 

PEBORATION. 

"  I  assume  to  keep  no  man's  conscience  ;  I  assume  to  judge  for  no 
man  ;  I  do  not  assume  that  I  am  better  than  any  man,  but  that  I  am 
weaker.  But  I  say  this  to  you,  I  have  a  boy  as  dear  to  me  as  the 
ruddy  drops  that  gather  about  this  heart.  I  find  my  hopes  already 
centring  in  his  little  body,  and  I  look  to  him  to-night  to  take  to 
himself  the  work  that,  strive  as  I  may,  mast  fall  unfinished  at  last 
from  my  hands.  Now,  I  know  they  say  it  is  proper  to  educate  a  boy 
at  home  ;  that  if  he  is  taught  right  at  home  ho  will  not  go  wrong. 
That  is  a  lie  to  begin  with,  bat  that  don't  matter.  I  have  seen  sons 
of  some  as  good  people  as  ever  lived  turn  out  badly.  I  accept  my 
responsibility  as  a  father.  The  boy  may  fall  from  the  right  path  as 
things  now  exist.  If  he  does,  I  shall  bear  that  sorrow  with  such 
resignation  as  I  may  ;  but  I  tell  you,  if  I  were  to  vote  to  recall  bar- 
rooms to  this  city,  when  I  know  it  has  prospered  in  their  absence, 
and  that  boy  should  fall  through  their  agency.  I  tell  you — and  this 
conviction  has  come  to  me  in  the  still  watches  of  the  night— I  could 
not,  wearing  the  crowning  sorrow  of  his  disgrace  and  looking  into 
the  eyes  of  her  whose  heart  he  had  broken— I  could  not,  if  I  had 
voted  to  recall  these  bar-rooms,  find  answer  for  my  conscience  or 
support  for  my  remorse.  [Applause  ]  I  don't  know  how  any  other 
father  feels,  but  that  is  the  way  I  feel,  if  God  permits  me  to  utter 
the  truth." 

Then,  looking  over  the  vast  audience,  stilled  to  he;ir 
the  voice  of  tlie  speaker,  Mr.  Grady  said  with  great 
earnestness  and  eloquence  : 

'•  The  best  reforms  of  this  earth  come  through  waste  and  Btorm 
and  doabt  and  suspicion  ;  the  sun  itself  when  it  rises  on  each  day 
wastes  the  radiance  of  the  moon  and  bloti*  the  starlight  from  thn 
skies,  but  only  to  unlock  the  earth  from  the  claap  of  night  and  plant 


290  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

the  stars  anew  in  the  opening  flowers.  Behind  that  snn,  as  behind 
this  movement,  we  may  be  sure  there  stands  the  Lord  God  Almighty, 
Master  and  Maker  of  this  universe,  from  whose  hand  the  spheres  are 
rolled  to  their  orbits,  and  whose  voice  has  been  the  harmony  of  this 
world  since  the  morning  stars  sang  together. "  [Tremendous,  loud, 
and  long-continued  applause.] 

To  this  speech  no  adequate  reply  was  ever  made.  For 
a  time  it  seemed  that  the  advocates  of  Prohibition  were 
sure  to  sweep  the  field.  They  were  confident  of  carry- 
ing the  election.  But  thoughtful  men  were  anxious  he- 
cause  the  Liquor  Power  did  not  show  its  hand.  It  was  not 
to  be  supposed  the  liquor  men  would  let  such  an  election  go 
by  default.  Because  they  made  no  sign  the  danger  was 
all  the  greater.  They  had  some  deep  scheme,  the  deeper 
because  it  was  still.  In  fact,  it  was  so  shrewd,  so  artfully 
conceived,  that  no  one  appreciated  what  it  was  till  it 
was  sprung  upon  the  people  in  the  full  tide  of  victory. 

A  correspondent  wrote  on  November  29th  :  '*  Every- 
thing seemed  to  promise  glorious  victory  for  the  Pro- 
hibitionists until  Thursday  (November  24tli).  There 
never  was  a  body  of  earnest  men  more  sanguine  of  a 
brilliant  success  thau  the  Prohibitionists  of  Atlanta. 
Never  for  a  moment  did  they  think  of  less  than  800 
majority.  The  entire  registry  list  had  been  canvassed. 
The  Prohibitionists  had  secured  pledged  voters  enough 
to  carry  the  day  by  a  handsome  majority. 

*'  This  confidence  lasted  until  Thursday.  On  that  day 
the  *  Antis '  assumed  a  more  confident  air.  They  be- 
gan to  claim  majorities.  It  was  whispered  around  that 
they  had  plenty  of  money.  The  negro  vote  had  become 
more  solid. 

**  *  Yellowstone  Kit,'  a  vendor  of  patent  medicines, 
who  had  been  plying  his  work  here  for  some  time  among 
the  negroes,  had 


ATLANTA.  291 


BY  WELL-DIRECTED  CHARITIES 


and  by  working  upon  their  superstitions,  gained  a  won- 
derful inflnenco  over  them.  He  liad  attracted  but  little 
notice  from  the  wliites.  Suddenly  it  was  announced 
that  he  had  quit  selling  patent  medicines  and  taken  to 
making  Anti- Prohibition  speeches.  Everybody  at  once 
realized  that  he  was  a  powerful  factor  in  the  contest,  for 
the  negroes  actually  feared  him,  and  almost  worshipped 
liim.  He  rode  through  the  streets  at  night  followed  by 
thousands  of  them  yelling  like  wild  men.  They  lifted 
him  from  his  carriage,  and  from  the  sidewalks  listened 
to  his  wild  harangues.  The  scenes  beggared  descrip- 
tion. On  Friday  night  the  *  Antis '  made  the  first  grand 
demonstration  on  the  streets,  with  '  Yellowstone  Kit'  for 
their  central  figure.  He  rode  up  the  main  streets  at- 
tended by  thousands  of  negroes.  To  this  mountebank's 
power  over  the  ignorant  voters  is  largely  clue  the  result.*' 
"  Yellowstone  Kit"  was  the  hand  of  the  Liquor  Power, 
by  which  it  scraped  up  all  that  was  ignorant,  super- 
stitious, and  purchasable,  and  hurled  it  in  a  solid  mass 
against  the  beneficent  law. 

Very  influential,  too,  was  a  placard  representing  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  striking  the  fetters  from  a  slave,  and  pro- 
testing against  Prohibition  as  an  invasion  of  liberty. 
Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  find  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
works  and  in  the  reminiscences  of  those  who  knew  him 
anything  resembling  the  words  thus  attributed  to  him, 
but  in  vain.  The  evidence  is  strong  that  they  were  eflec- 
tive  with  the  negroes,  who  were  not  scholars,  but  dearly 
loved  the  memory  of  the  great  emancipator.  So  Pro- 
hibition was  defeated  by  1100  majority,  and  a  system  of 
High  License  took  its  place. 


292  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

The  license  was  made  as  ''restrictive"  as  possible. 
The  fee  for  selling  all  kinds  of  liquors  was  put  at  $1,000  ; 
that  for  beer  and  wine  only  at  $100,  with  severe  pro- 
TJsions  against  the  most  common  abuses  of  the  traffic* 
The  law  is  remarkably  good  for  a  license  law.  It  has 
now  been  in  force  for  two  years,  giving  time  to  study 
its  effects. 

In  the  summer  of  1888,  about  six  months  after  the 
return  of  the  bar-rooms,  the  Atlanta  Commonwealth 
gave  the  following  interviews  with  tradesmen  of  the 
city  : 

"  W.  B.  Heath,  336  Decatur  Street  (groceries),  when  asked  how  his 
trade  since  the  return  of  the  bar-rooms  compared  with  the  corre- 
sponding period  of  the  previous  year,  answered  : 

"'  Trade  is  off  50  per  cent.  The  majority  of  my  customers  are 
colored  people.  During  Prohibition  whiskey  was  hard  to  get  ;  they 
were  compelled  to  send  away  for  it,  and  that  involved  a  good  deal 
of  trouble.  My  customers  stayed  sober  and  paid  their  debts  then  ; 
now  whiskey  is  convenient,  and  drunkenness  and  the  chain-gang  are 
the  consequences.  I  know  four  colored  men  who  were  sober  and 
industrious  during  Prohibition,  now  they  are  drunk  and  in  the 
chain-gang  half  their  time. 

"  '  During  Prohibition  I  credited  these  men,  and  they  paid 
promptly  ;  now  their  credit  is  gone,  and  the  bar  rooms  and  Judge 
Anderson  get  all  the  cash.  I  was  and  am  and  ever  will  be  a  Pro- 
hibitionist.' 

"  The  next  house  we  entered  was  a  large  grocery  house.  We  saw 
the  senior  member  of  the  firm,  and  to  our  question,  '  How  is  trade  Y 
he  replied  :  *  Trade  is  not  near  so  good  as  it  was  a  year  ago.' 

'  • '  What  is  the  cause  ?  ' 

**  '  There  is  only  one  cause  that  I  can  see— namely,  the  bringing 
back  of  bar-rooms.  I  do  not  know  what  effect  the  bar-rooms  have 
on  other  business,  but  they  have  certainly  injured  the  retail  grocery 
trade.  I  voted  for  Anti-Prohibition  last  election,  but  I  shall  un- 
hesitatingly vote  for  Prohibition  next  time,  for  Prohibition  benefited 
the  town.     I  ask  yon  not  to  gi\e  my  name.' 

"  Stowers,  White  &  Co.,  362  Decatnr  Street  (furniture  on  the 
instalment  plan)  :   'Business  not  so  good,  coUectionH   much  worse  ; 


ATLANTA.  298 

oause— spendiDg  money  in  bar-rooms  which  should  b«  applied  to 
the  payment  of  debts.' 

.  "  J.  H.  Smith  (Anti),  361  Decatur  Street,  was  not  in.  His  chief 
clerk,  N.  A.  Landford,  a  ProhibitioniHt,  gave  us  the  following  infor- 
mation :  *  Business  has  fallen  off  from  last  year  one  third.  Let  me 
show  you  our  books.  Now  take  Mr.  ,  a  white  man,  a  good  me- 
chanic. Daring  Prohibition  he  paid  us  every  Saturday  night,  and 
his  account  amounted  to  $5,  never  less  than  $3  ;  now  his  trade 
amounts  to  $2,  and  occasionally  f  4,  and  for  the  past  two  weeks  he 
has  paid  us  nothing. 

"  *  Now  here  is  a  colored  man  who  always  paid  during  Prohibition  ; 
never  allowed  his  account  to  become  past  due.  In  April  we  had  shut 
him  oflE  owing  us  $44  40.  What  is  the  cause  ?  Close  at  hand  is  a 
bar-room,  and  drunkenness  is  common — men  who  during  Prohibi- 
tion were  never  seen  under  the  influence  of  drink  now  staggering 
by  here.' 

"  J.  F.  Hudgins,  358  Decatur  Street  :  '  Business  has  fallen  way  off 
from  last  year.  Why,  on  Saturday  nights  last  year  we  could  hardly 
wait  on  the  trade  ;  now  the  bar-rooms  are  crowded  and  my  place 
looks  lonely.  Where  people  spent  $8  to  $10  with  me  last  year  they 
now  spend  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents.  My  cigar  and  tobacco  trade 
has  entirely  fallen  off.     They  go  to  the  bar  rooms  for  such  now.* 

*'  *  Mr.  Hudgins,'  we  said,  *  you  were  formerly  in  the  business  in 
Macon  ;  from  your  own  experience  do  you  think  bar-rooms  benefit  a 
town  ? ' 

"  '  The  bar-room  business  benejiUi  the  man  who  runs  the  bir,  and 
injures  everybody  else — injures  the  patrons  thereof  directly  and  the 
community  indirectly.  The  fir.st  step  in  the  drunkard's  career  is 
taken  in  the  bar-room.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  them  take  the  fatal 
step,  some  of  them  in  my  own  bar-room.  I  never  saw  a  man  worthy 
the  name  of  a  man  who  liked  the  business.  Whiskey  is  not  only  a 
curse  to  the  man  who  drinks,  but  also  to  the  man  who  sells.  I  have 
shut  down  on  some  of  my  best  customers  on  account  of  drinking. 
I  am  a  Prohibitionist  now  more  than  ever. ' 

"  A.  J.  Divine  (colored),  188  Decatur  Street  (retail  groceries),  says  : 
*  Business  was  better  since  last  January  ;  there  was  more  money  in 
circulation  till  a  bar-room  started  near  me.  I  voted  and  worked  for 
Anti-Prohibition.  I  am  now  a  Prohibitionist  for  two  reasons  :  1. 
They  placed  a  saloon  right  by  me— this  is  injuring  my  trade  ;  people 
are  buying  whiskey  with  money  they  formerly  spent  with  me  for 
groceries.      2.   Dnrinp;   the   lafit   campaign    the   Anti  Prohibitionistii 


294  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

struck  no  line  of  demarcation  ;  they  promised  to  do  what  was  right. 
I  am  no  social  equality  negro,  bnt  I  voted  to  bring  whiskey  back  to 
Atlanta,  because  I  was  promised  that  the  colored  man  would  have 
the  sarao  rights  in  obtaining  that  whiskey  that  the  white  man  has. 
Well,  I  made  a  mistake,  for  if  you  go  into  one  of  these  bars  for  a 
drink  they  tell  you  to  get  out,  that  they  don't  sell  to  niggers,' 

* '  Adamson  &  Son  do  a  large  grocery  business  at  264  Decatur  Street. 
Young  Mr.  Adamson  was  in,  and  seemed  to  be  siifEering  from  the 
effects  of  a  meeting  at  the  court-house  the  night  before.  He  an- 
nounced to  the  reporter  that  we  had  '  downed '  his  crowd,  but  that 
they  would  not  get  left  again.  He  said  business  was  about  the 
same— if  anything  a  little  better.  '  I  don't  see,'  said  Mr.  Adamson, 
'  that  the  voting  back  of  whiskey  has  in  any  way  affected  my  busi- 
ness. I  am  an  Anti,  because  I  think  the  sale  of  liquor  benefits 
Atlanta,' 

"  Thompson  &  Waley,  grocers,  265  Decatur  Street,  said  they  didn't 
sell  as  much  nor  get  paid  for  as  much  as  last  year.  People  find 
other  places  more  attractive.  *  Close  at  hand  is  the  Bell  Street  Com- 
press, giving  employment  to  quite  a  number.  On  Saturday  evenings, 
last  year,  you  never  saw  the  wives  of  these  men  assembling  on  the 
street  corner  ;  now,  every  Saturday  evening,  you  see  women  waiting 
on  the  comer  to  keep  their  husbands  from  going  to  the  bar-rooms  to 
spend  their  money.  Put  me  down  as  a  Prohibitionist  confirmed  in 
the  faith.' 

**  W.  S.  Shields  runs  a  batcher  shop  on  Decatur  Street.  He 
says  he  does  not  do  one-half  the  business  he  did  a  year  ago.  Satur- 
day night's  trade  is  not  near  one-half.  The  cause,  he  says,  is  people 
drinking  liquor.  *  Tliere  »re  $300  due  me  now  by  people  who  paid 
promptly  during  Prohibition.     Put  me  down  as  against  bar-rooms.' 

"  Y.  8.  Crow,  corner  Decatur  and  Bell  streets,  Anti-Prohibitionist, 
said  c  *  My  business  is  a  little  better.  Cause,  bringing  back  liquor 
to  the  town.' 

"  Tate  &  Son  (colored),  220  Decatur  Street,  dry  goods  and  groceries. 
They  own  the  store  in  which  they  do  business  and  also  a  large  plat- 
form on  the  Bichmond  and  Danville  Kailroad.  J.  E.  Tate,  the  son, 
made  the  following  statement  : 

"  '  Business  has  fallen  off  50  percent,  from  last  year.  Cause,  li(iuor 
being  voted  back.  This  is  the  main  cause.  People  who  spent  their 
money  for  groceries  before  now  spend  it  in  the  bar-rooms.  Collec- 
tions are  very  poor.  Why.  wo  have  lost  more  money  since  whiskey 
has  returned  than  we  did  during  the  two  years  of  Prohibition,     I 


ATLANTA.  205 

have  been  neutral  ;  did  not  vote.  I  am  a  Probibilioniat  trom  now 
on.  Why,  I  know  men  who  during  Prohibition  made  fS  and  $4  a 
day,  who  since  whiskey  has  returned  have  not  supported  their 
families.  They  hang  around  bar-rooms,  and  do  not  think  of  work- 
ing. Some  of  them  are  white  men,  and  some  colored.  I  rarely  saw 
a  woman  drunk  during  Prohibition  ;  now  1  see  them  frequently. 
Last  week  I  saw  three  drunken  women  pass  my  store,  one  right  after 
the  other.     Bar-rooms  and  whiskey  are  a  curse  to  my  race.' 

"  T.  J.  Buchanan  (retail  groceries),  Decatur  Street,  said  :  '  BosineM 
not  so  good  as  last  year.  Ran  two  stores  last  year,  now  I  run  only 
one.  I  have  investigated  the  matter,  and  find  from  my  books  that 
my  business  has  fallen  off  25  per  cent.  .There  may  be  other  causes 
for  this  state  of  affairs,  but  the  most  tangible  one  to  mo  is  "Per- 
sonal Liberty  and  Bed  Liquor."  Money  is  being  diverted  from  the 
proper  channels  of  trade  into  the  tills  of  the  bar-rooms. 

**  *  During  Prohibition  I  invariably  sent  uptown  and  got  $100  in  sil- 
ver change  for  Saturday's  trade.  When  a  customer  came  into  my  store 
they  would  frequently  offer  me  a  five-dollar  bill  to  change  ;  now  five- 
dollar  bills  are  scarce.  They  may  be  bore,  but  if  they  are  the  bar- 
rooms change  them,  and  we  only  get  tho  remnants. 

'*  'Iknowof  cases  of  men  who  kept  sober  during  Prohibition,  worked 
steadily,  and  made  a  good  living  for  their  families,  but  who  are  now 
drinking  and  carousing  while  their  families  are  suffering  for  the  neceM- 
saries  of  life.  Close  at  hand  is  a  man,  a  good  mechanic,  naturally 
kind-hearted  and  honorable,  a  good  husband  and  indulgent  father,  but 
cursed  with  a  love  for  whiskey.  During  Prohibition  this  man  re- 
mained sober  and  provided  well  for  his  family.  Himself,  wife,  and 
children  were  pictures  of  happiness,  and  he  was  laying  up  money. 
Now  he  neglects  his  work,  spends  his  money  in  the  bar-rooms,  and 
his  wife  and  family  have  to  suffer.  They  are  now  iho  very  pictures 
of  misery,  and  all  on  account  of  the  bar  room,  whose  allurements  are 
fast  ruining  a  man  who  is  capable  of  making  himself  and  others 
happy.  The  saloon-keeper  is  benefited  at  the  expense  of  (he  ruin  of 
an  entire  family.  I  want  Prohibition,  and  when  it  comes  agftin  I 
want  it  to  stay.' 

"J.  A.  Bachelor,  who  keeps  a  grocery  store  at  23G  Decatiur  Btrest, 
said  :  '  Business  about  the  same  as  last  year.  Bringing  back  bar- 
rooms has  not  affected  my  business  ;  there  are  dead-beats  now  who 
do  not  pay,  and  there  were  dead.beats  who  woald  not  pay  daring 
Prohibition.  I  voted  Anti  before  ;  I  am  undecided  now  ;  have  no 
idea  I  shall  vote  at  all  when  the  qaestion  comes  up  again.' 


296  ECONOMICS  OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

"  John  T.  Hagan  runs  a  grocery  store  at  190  Decatur  Street  ;  he 
also  runs  a  soda  and  mineral  water  bottling  establishment.  To  the 
question,  *  How  is  business  ?  '  he  responded  :  *  Grocery  business  is 
not  one-fourth  and  soda  water  not  one  tenth  what  it  was  last  year. 
The  grocery  business  has  fallen  off  because  people  spend  their  money 
for  whiskey  and  have  nothing  left  for  groceries.  The  soda  water 
trade  is  injured  by  beer  drinking.' 

"The  next  place  visited  was  a  large  grocery  store  which  does,  per- 
haps, the  largest  retail  business  on  Decatur  Street.  The  gentleman 
interviewed  had  conscientious  scruples  about  having  his  name  ap- 
pear in  print,  but  had  no  objection  to  giving  his  opinions  and  to 
state  facts.  He  emphatictjlly  declared  that  sales  were  not  near  so 
large  nor  collections  near  so  good  as  they  were  a  year  ago.  '  Men 
spend  money  for  whiskey  which  they  formerly  spent  with  us. 
Whiskey  gets  them  into  trouble,  then  come  fines,  perhaps  imprison- 
ment. The  time  spent  in  attending  court  and  in  the  chain-gang 
represents  so  much  money  that  these  men  spent  for  groceries  with 
US  last  year. 

'*  '  There  is  another  grievance,'  he  said.  •  We  do  not  now  have  as 
good  a  class  of  trade  as  we  had  last  year.  People  do  not  like  the 
complexion,  of  Decatur  Street,  and  they  stay  away.  Bar-rooms  have 
caused  all  this.  We  voted  for  Anti- Prohibition  before,  but  were 
there  another  election  we  would  vote  for  Prohibition.' 

"  M.  L.  Bridwell,  coal  and  wood,  219  Decatur  Street,  stated  that 
he  voted  the  Anti-Prohibition  ticket  last  time.  Has  very  decided 
opinions  on  '  restriction  and  High  License  ;'  did  not  care  to  have 
them  published.  His  sales  were  about  the  same,  but  his  coUecliona 
much  worse  than  last  year. 

"  R.  J.  Mosler,  crockery  and  fancy  goods,  132  Decatur  Street,  said 
he  had  located  in  his  present  store  April  20th,  1887.  '  Trade  was 
better  then  than  it  is  now.  I  think  barrrooms  have  injured  my  busi- 
ness.    I  am  a  Prohibitionist  and  ever  expect  to  be.' 

*'  I.  H.  Hoge,  groceries,  124  Decatur  Street,  said  :  '  I  sell  as  many 
goods  as  last  year,  but  find  it  much  harder-io  colled.  I  have  had  a 
large  colored  trade.  I  sold  them  goods  on  credit  last  year  and  got 
paid  for  them  I  have  had  to  shut  down  on  several  of  them  ;  they 
CJin't  run  an  account  with  me  and  also  one  with  the  whiskey  shop. 
They  will  pay  their  whiskey  account  and  leave  me  out  in  the  cold. 
Bringing  back  barrooms  to  Atlanta  has  injured  my  business.  I  am 
a  Prohibitionist  and  expect  to  remain  one. ' 

"Morris  &  Murphy,   wholesale  and  retail  grooerg,  113,  115,  and 


ATLAl^TA.  )t97 

117  Decatur  Street.  Mr.  Murphy  said  :  '  Sales  much  larger  ;  colleo- 
tions  good.  Bar-rooms  have  not  affected  my  business  ;  I  attribute 
this  entirely  to  hard  work,  strict  attention  to  my  own  biuinaM,  and 
leaving  other  people's  business  strictly  alone.' 

"  Terry  &  Brown  (groceries),  107  Decatur  Street  :  '  Our  cash  trade  is 
about  two  thirds  of  what  it  used  to  be.  Credit  trade  about  the  same. 
Collectiona  potoerfully  dull.  Bar-rooms  unquestionably  injure  bosi- 
ness.  A  man  need  not  be  a  Solomon  to  see  that  money  spent  for 
whiskey  cannot  be  spent  for  groceries,  and  that  a  man  who  earns 
barely  enough  to  support  his  family  must  curtail  his  grocery  bill 
when  he  spends  part  of  his  earnings  with  the  bar  rooms.  I  never 
voted,  but  I  know  that  Prohibition  is  much  better  than  the  condition 
of  things  prevailing  now.' 

**  Hanye  A  Dunlap,  grocers,  85  and  87  Decatur  Street  :  *  Oar  cash 
trade  has  fallen  off  ;  our  credit  trade  has  increased,  because  we  have 
extended  our  territory.  Bar  rooms  have  hurt  our  cash  trade  and 
forced  us  to  cut  oflf,  since  January  Ist,  forty  credit  customers  who, 
during  Prohibition,  came  up  every  Saturday  night  and  paid  their 
accounts.  Since  whiskey  came  back  they  spend  their  money  for 
drink.  Bar-rooms  had  not  been  established  a  week  before  we  began 
to  feel  their  effects  in  the  demoralization  of  our  trade.  We  are  Pro- 
hibitionists.' 

"  S.  A.  &  J.  A.  Morris,  133  to  137  Decatur  Street  (wagon  yard 
and  grocery  store)  :  Mr,  S.  A.  Morris,  on  being  asked  about  busi- 
ness, replied  :  •  We  are  selling  many  more  goods  than  this  time 
last  year ;  the  re-establishment  of  bar-rooms  has  not  helped 
our  business.  I  do  not  think  it  has  affected  our  business  one 
way  or  the  other.  I  think  there  are  too  many  bar-rooms  in  At 
lanta  now,  and  entirely  too  many  on  Decatur  Street.  Our  cash 
sales  are  lai^er.'  Mr.  S.  A.  Morris  is  one  of  the  Anti  members  of 
the  City  Council, 

"  Before  leaving  Decatur  Street  we  called  on  Messrs.  Mack  Sl  Sugar- 
man,  dealers  in  clothing  and  gents'  furnishing  goods.  To  our  qoet- 
tion  regarding  bubincss,  Mr.  Sugarman  replied  :  '  Business  is  not  so 
good  as  during  Prohibition.  People  spend  their  money  in  the  bar* 
rooms  now  instead  of  in  the  clothing  stores.  During  Prohibition 
colored  people  wore  good  clothes  and  good  shoes  ;  now  you  see  the 
same  people  with  ragged  clothes  and  worn-out  shoes.  Saturday 
night's  trade,  which  was  formerly  so  good,  is  now  way  off.  I  am  a 
Prohibitionist  now.  My  partner,  Mack,  says  he  is  an  Anti,  but  ha 
is  not' " 


298 


ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 


Up  to  the  present  time  the  police  statistics  are   as 
follows  : 

AS   TO    CRIME. 

Under  Prohibition  alone,  imperfect  as  it  was,  arrests  in  Atlanta 

decreased  as  follows  : 

Total  Population. 

Year.         Liquor  law.                       Population.  arreete.  to  1  arrest. 

1883  Low  License 49,517  5,578  8.8 

1884  "                53,812  5,824  9.2 

1885  "                56,837  6,305  9.0 

1886  Six  months  Prohibition.  60,000  5,578  10.7 

1887  Prohibition 65,000  6,138  10.3 

1888  High  License 70,000  7,817  8.9 

1889  '•              75.000  10.379  7.2 


DRUNKENNESS    MORE   THAN    DOUBLED   BY   HIGH   LICENSE. 


The  arrests  for  drunkenness  alone  for  the  first  nine  months  of 
|1,00(.  High  License,  compared  with  the  same  months  during  the 
last  year  of  Prohibition,  are  as  follows  : 


Total  arrests. 
1887.  1888. 

Prohibi-  $1,000 

lion.  License. 

January 349  575 

February 382  571 

March 400  667 

April 468  650 

May 540  642 

June 541  623 

July 567  733 

August 699  724 

September 578  620 

Totals 4.524  6.805 


Arrests  for 

drunkenness. 

1887. 

1888. 

►rohib 

i-           $1,000 

tiou. 

Licen8< 

59 

190 

85 

184 

63 

216 

78 

139 

73 

151 

70 

108 

80 

156 

84 

171 

92 

195 

674 


1,519 


Note  a  few  striking  sentences,  eloquent  in  their  sim- 
plicity. 

The  dealer  in  furniture  says  :  **  The  first  Saturday 
night  after  the  return  of  the  bar-rooms  our  trade  de- 
creased $28,  which  are  now  about  one-half  wliat  they 
were."     Here  is  one  reason  why  the  home  is  wretched 


ATLANTA.  M9 

where   the   saloon   is   prosperous.     The   money  that  id 
spent  for  whiskey  cannot  be  spent  for  furniture. 

The  coal  and  wood  dealer  reports :  **  When  the  bar- 
rooms were  closed,  I  sold  them  half  a  ton  at  a  time  ; 
now,  25  and  50  cents  worth."  Did  you  ever  have  an  in- 
valid or  a  tender  babe  in  your  family  ?  What  would  you 
say  to  starting  in  for  a  day  on  25  cents  worth  of  coal, 
not  knowing  when  you  could  buy  any  more  i 

Nearly  unanimous  are  such  reports  as  these  : 

**  They  now  buy  a  cheaper  class  of  goods — want  cheap- 
est every  time." 

* '  There  has  been  one  continuous  demand  for  cheaper 
goods  ever  since  the  bar-rooms  returned.''  That  means 
discomfort  in  the  home  and  loss  to  the  tradesmen  at  the 
same  time. 

Most  striking,  too,  is  the  '*bad  debt"  report : 

**  Harder  to  collect  from  workingmen  now  than  during 
Prohibition.    Bad  debts  increasing  with  these  people." 

**  Bad  debts  have  iu creased  tenfold  ;  collections  impos- 
sible.'' 

That  is  the  tribute  which  the  honest  tradesman  pays 
to  the  liquor-dealer.     The  saloon-keeper  gets  his  money. 

He  says  of  his  business  : 

**They  do  not  ask  for  credit,  but  pay  as  they  go." 
Pie  has  only  to  threaten  not  to  sell,  and  he  can  wring 
from  the  mad  appetite  of  his  victims  their  last  cent. 
The  groceryman,  the  butcher,  the  furniture  dealer,  and 
the  shoe-dealer  can  trust  and  wait,  and  wait  in  vauu 

In  December,  1889,  The  Voice  addressed  inquiries  to 
prominent  business  men  of  Atlanta,  whose  replies  are 
presented  in  the  following  table  : 


300 


ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 


TABLE  OF  REPLIES   FROM   47 


VaXH  AKO  BUBINX88. 


1  Ajcordus,  M.  F.— XMmftcr 

2  Atkins,  J.  W.  &  E.  C.  W. 

—  W?iolesaU  Hats. 


1.  Have  yon  noticed  since 
the  return  of  tlie  open  bar- 
rooms to  Atlanta  any  in-) 
crease  or  decrease  in  the, 
average  amount  of  your 
sales  to  the  workinemen, 
as  compared  with  sales  to 
the  same  class  of  people 
under  Prohibition  ?  If  so, 
which  ?  and  to  what  ex- 
tent f  I 


2.  Do  you  sell  more  or 
less  on  average  to  working- 
men  for  cat*h  than  you  did 
under  Prohibition  —  in 
other  wordt",  have  your 
credit  sales  to  this  class  of 
people  proportionately  de- 
creased or  increased  ?  and 
to  what  extent  ? 


Do  not  think  condition  of 
workingmen  affected. 

We  are  in  wholesale  bual- 
nesa  exclusively. 


Do  not  believe  business  af- 
fected either  way. 


8  Baksr,    D.    J.— Centra/ a  decrease  of  20  per  cent. 

Merchandise.  | 

Beck  &  Gregg — TFAote- Being    wholesalers,     have 


I  sell  50  per  cent,  leas  for 
cash. 


sale  Hardware. 


Bbookb,   B.    C,  &  Bro. 
—Furniture. 


6  Brooks,  J.  W.,  &  Co. 
Retail  Grocers. 


7  Bdchakak,  T.  J.— Fam- 
ily Groceries. 


8  BUBOB,     C. 
Groceries. 


fl.  -  BetaU 


9  Dawiel,  J.  C— Boots  and 

Shoes. 


10  Dbapkr,  W.  W.  -VfTuOe 
sale  Boote  and  Shoes. 


11  Etins,  Johh  C.—Fumi 
tun. 


tile 


little  to  do  with  working- 
men. 

We  can  truthfully  say  that 
first  Saturday  night  we 
had  decreased  $28  in  our 
sales,  which  are  now 
about  one- half. 

I  have  experienced  a  con- 
siderable decrease  —  at 
least  20  per  cent. 

A  decrease  of  25  per  cent. 


A  decrease,  especially   to 
workingmen. 


A  decrease  of  about  one- 
half. 


We  sell  for  cash  about  one- 
fourth  now  what  we  did 
imder  Prohibition. 


I  sell  50  per  cent,  less  for 
cash  than  under  Prohibi- 
tion. 

Sell  considerably  less  lor 
cash. 


Cash  trade  fallen  off  about 
25  per  cent.;  credit  in- 
creased about  the  same. 

Sell  less  ;  the  demand  for 
credit  greatly  increased. 


Oar   city   patrons  —  some  Answered  under  No.  1. 

Ami-  Prohibitionists  —I 

tell  us  the  bar-nxims  have 

cut  off  their  trade.  | 

When  bar  rooms  returned  Mv  trade  is  good,  but  there 

I  felt  it  very  seriously  in     Is   less  ability  and    less 

falling  off  of  trade.  disposition   to    nny   now 

than  during  Pronibition. 


AILANTA. 


■M)l 


BUSINESS  MEN  OF  ATLANTA. 


3.  Do  you  notice  that  it 
id  easier  or  harder  now  to 
make    collectioiisi    in    At 
lanta   than 
Prohibition 


4.  Do  you  find  the  work 
ing  people  now  purchu^iiig 
Vt  was  "I'lnflVr  t''^'"*^™'^y  »'  clieaper   or  a 
V     Tn    n  t  herl^«"«'r  cla88  of  gtiodB  than 
;>,.  ."  Al?  !.f '  under  Prohibition  y    if  ho, 


Id  my  trade  collections  are 
much  harder. 


I  5.  In  your  opinion  would 
it  or  would  it  not  bo  a  ben- 
efit to  buHJneHH  generally  if 
the  money  now  spent  in 
the  ealoonefhouid  be  spent 
for  clothing,  fuel,  furni- 
ture, etc.,  and  tlie  other 
comfona  and  necesBarie* 
of  life  ? 


Our  beet  information  ia 
that  (>oor  people  and  la- 
boring claas  look  niucli 
better  care  of  families, 
paid  their  grocery  and 
other  bills  more  urompt- 
Iv  during  Prohibition 
than  before  or  since. 

Cannot  Bay. 


Prohibition  cannot  be 
forced. 


Money  spent  for  liquor*  is  a   8 
'     complete  loss. 
. .  It  certainly  would.  4 


We  used  to  collect  from 
$75  to  $100  a  week,  now 
we  can  get  only  from  S25 
to  S40,  and  very  hard  to 
do  that. 

Collections  from  the  labor- 
ing class  arc  not  nearly 
eo  good  as  during  Pro- 
hibition. 

Much  harder  to  make  col- 
lections. Many  former- 
ly ei)cnt  earnings  for 
provisions  now  buy  on 
time  and  spend  money 
in  bar-rooms. 

Much  harder  to  make  col- 
lections now  than  dur- 
ing Prohibition. 

Much  harder ;  bad  debts 
increa«je  more  rapidly, 
although  I  am  more  cau- 
tious than  during  Pro- 
hibition. 

Think  collections  not  as 
good. 


They  buy  the  cheapest  and 
mostly  second-hand 
goods. 


About  the  same  class  of 
goods. 


No  marked  difference. 


.They  now  buy  a  cheaper 
I    class   of   goods ;     want 
cheapest  every  time. 

Cheaper  goods  purchased 
now  •  under  ProhibiLion 
they  bought  shoes  worth 
from  $2  to  $3 ;  now 
from  $  I  to  fl.sa 

Know  nothing. 


It  Is  much  harder  to  col- 
lect now.  When  bar- 
rooms returned  my  col- 
lections fell  off  fully  25 
per  cent. 


There  has  been  one  contin- 
uous demand  forcltcapcr 
goods  ever  since  bar- 
rooms returned.  I  sell 
on  average  25  per  cent 
cheaper  goods. 


Yes,  sir. 


Answering  from  personal   6 
experience,  it  would  un- 
doubtedly be  better. 

Undoubtedly.    Re-openinff   7 
bar-rooms    greatest  evil 
that  ever  t>efell  us. 


In  my  opinion   our   cai>h   8 
sales  would  increase  ten- 
fold   if    the    bar-rooms 
were  closed. 

Most  emphatically  i»  9 
wotild. 


Certatnlr  would  be  a  bene- 10 
fit. 


Would  be  a  great  benefit  11 
to  the  entire  communiiy. 


30*4 


ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 


TABLE  OF  EEPLIES  FROM  47  BUSI- 


NAMX  and  Br«INES8. 


1.  Have  you  noticed  since 
the  return  of  the  open  bar-'  2.  Do  you  sell  more  or 
roome  to  Atlanta  any  in- less  on  average  to  working- 
crease  or  decrease  in  the i men  for  cash  than  you  did 
average  amount  of  your  under  Prohibition  —  in 
sales  to  the  workingmen  other  words,  have  your 
as  compared  with  sales  to  credit  sales  to  this  class  of 
the  same  class  of  people  people  proportionately  de- 
under  Prohibition  ?  If  so»  creased  or  increased  ?  and 
which  »  and  to  what  ex-:io  what  extent  ? 
tent  ? 


12  TmCKKB.     &      FiNCHER— 

Jietail  Groceries. 


13  Gilbert,  H.  C— Grocer- 
ies. 

U  Gramlino,    H.    3.— Dry 
Goods. 


15  Hughes  A  Law— Hats 
and  Gents'  Furnishing. 

10  •Hentschel,  C— Grocer- 
ies. 


17  tHENTscuEL,  William— 

Clothing,     Genu'    li\ir- 
nishinn. 

18  Hooan,  \\'.  J.—Itefaii and 

Wholesale  Grocer. 


19  Holbrook,  a.  L..  &,  Co. 
—Rftait  Groceries. 


Our  trade  with  the  drink-;They  want  more  credit  and 


Ing  classes  is  about  half 
wnal  it  was  during  Pro- 
hibition. 


pay  less,  most  of  them 
nothing. 


My  trade  was  better  during  I  sell  less  ;  credit  sales  are 
Prohibition.  I     on  the  increase. 


A  decrease,  I  think,  of  90 
per  cent. 


Can't  see  any  difference. 

About   200   per   cent,    in- 
crease. 


We  refuse  more  now  than 
we   did  during  Prohibi- 


No  increase. 

I  sell  more  for  cash. 


ao  Hcrr,  H. 
yvood. 


T.—Coal  and 


Some    increase    in    some  I  do  not  credit 
business,  a  large  fall  off 
in  others. 
Business   generally  better  Credit    sales    to    laboriiif{ 
in  Atlanta,  but  do  not     class  have  increased, 
attribute  it  to  open  sa- 
loons,   but   to  rapid 
growth  of  city  and  better 
crops. 

At  least  10  per  cent.  less.  Our  credit  sales  have  in- 
creased some  :  would  be 
much  larger,  out  we  re- 
fuse ;  demand  for  credit 
much  increased. 
When  the  bar-rooms  were'Sell  less  ;    can't  credit  at 


closed  I  sold  them  half! 
ton  at  a  time  ;  now  86 
and  GO  cents'  worth.        I 


all. 


•  C.  Hentschel,  who  signed  himself  "Groceries"  in  answer  ti  our  questions,  is 

?iat  down  In  the  iKxly  of  the  Atlanta  City  Directory  as  "  Ctrocerles  and  liquors." 
lo  has  also  the  following  half-{>age  display  adverfiwment  on  iwge  28  of  the  Atlanta 
Directory  :  "  Carl  HentBchol,  Dealer  in  Imported  and  Domestic  Wines,  Brandies  and 
Whiskies  and  Other  Liquors— Fresh  Beer  always  on  Draught— Fancy  Groceries, 
Fine  Tobacco  and  Cigars— 54  and  56  Decatur  St.,  Atlanta,  Georgia." 

t  Thert  are  Ave  IJeatschels  in  the  Atlanta  Directory— four  of  whom  are  directlj 


ATLANTA. 


308 


NESS   MEN   OF  ATLANTA— Continued. 


3.  Do  you  notice  that  It 
Js  easier  or  harder  now  to 
make  collections  in  At. 
lama  than  it  was  nnder 
Prohibition  ?  In  other 
word8,  doeu  th*»  nninber  of 
"bad  debts"  ftave  a  ten- 
dency to  increase  or  de- 
crease f 


A   T\^  ^^^  n^A  ♦».«  «.«,u      6.  In  your  opinion  would 
4.  Da  vou  find  tlie  work  j^  -^jj  j^  ^^  ^    ^ 

injr  ,KH,p1o  now  ,.urc-h«HnK  ^.,j^  ^^  ^^,^j„^.^^  generally  if 
KtM.erallv  a  cheii  H-r  or  a  j,,^  ,„„  „,„^  spent^n 
better  class  of  good,  than  ^^^  Bak>onB  should  lie  6i)ent 
for  clothing,  fuel,  furni- 
ture, etc,  and  the  other 
comforts  and  neceesariet 
of  life  t 


under  Prohibition  t  If  so, 
give  some  examples  of 
what  they  buy  now  com- 
pared witk  formerly. 


Collections  are  much  hard- 
er now. 


It  is  harder  to  make  col 
lections  since  return  of 
bar  rooms. 


Noticed  no  difference. 

Hy  collections  much  better 
now. 


Cannot  say. 


Bad  debts  have  noticeably 
increased. 


Many  buy  nothing,  their 
wiveb  having  to  support 
them. 

Cheaper. 


Cheaper.  Hosiery,  former- 
ly 25c.,  now  want  10  to 
15c.;  flannels,  formerly 
85c.  to  £0c.,  now  want 
20c  to  80c.;  shoes,  for- 
merly $1.50  to  |2,  now 
$1  to  $1.50. 

Noticed  no  change. 

Better  goods  are  bongbt 
now  than  before. 


About   the   same.      Have 
more  money  to  buy  with. 

Notice  no  difference. 


It  would  benefit  our  busi- 12 
ness  very  much. 


It  would. 
It  would. 


Think  it  would  be. 


Harder  to  collect  now  from  Do  not  see  much  difference 
workingmen    than   dur-i    as  to  quality  ;  but  quan- 
ing     Prohibition  ;     bad  I    tity  and  cash  Lb  less, 
debts     increasing    with  I 
these  people.  j 

Harder  to  collect  from  that  Colored   people    buy    the 

class  that  spend  moneys    cheapest  things  they  can 

in  saloons.  get ;  during  Prohibition 

I    bought  the  best. 


15 


Would  be  best  for  mon- 16 
ey  to  be  spent  for  food, 
clothing,  etc.  But  parties 
spending  money  for 
whiskey,  best  buy  by 
drink  than  gallon,  as  un- 
der Prohibition. 

I  think  the  saloons  best ;  17 
men  formerly  bought  by 
gallon,  now  buy  by  drink. 

Money  spent  for  drink  18 
would  greatly  benefit 
business,  and  none  others 
think  otherwise  except 
those  directly  or  indi- 
rectly in  liquor  business. 

We   most    assuredly   do  ;  19 
workinemen  do  not  live 
as   well  now   aa   under 
Prohibition. 

'it  would.    Prohibition  the  20 
I    bett    thing    that    could 
1    happen   to   a    town    or 
I    place. 


engaged  In  the  liquor  business  :  the  saloon-keeper  above  described  ;  August  Hent- 
schel,  wholesale  dealer  in  higer  beer ;  Gottlieb  lleni^cliel,  saloon  at  4<i  Decatur 
Street ;  Paul  Hentschel,  barkeeper  for  tiottlicb  llcntschel,  boards  at  3S1  Wheat 
Street;  and  William  Ilentschei.  dry  goods.  .V3  Decatur  Street  (next  door  to  C.  Ilent- 
Bchel's  saloon^  who  also  boards  at  3.S1  Whont  Street.  These  facts  may  help  to 
account  for  the  unfavorable  opinion  which  William  Uentachel,  "  Clothierand  Genta* 
Furnisher,"  holds  with  reference  to  Prohibition. 


3U4 


ECOi^OMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 


TABLE  OF  REPLIES  FROM  47  BUSI- 


Name  and  Business. 


1.  Have  you  noticed  since 
the  return  of  the  open  bar- 
rooms to  Atlanta  any  in- 
crease or  decrease  in  the 
average  amount  of  your 
^sales  to  the  workingnien, 
jas  compared  with  sales  to 
the  same  class  of  people 
lander  Prohibition  ?  If  so, 
which  ?  and  to  what  ex- 
tent ? 


2.  Do  you  sell  more  or 
lees  on  average  to  working- 
men  for  cash  than  you  did 
under  Prohibition  —  in 
other  words,  have  your 
credit  sales  to  this  class  of 
people  proportionately  de- 
creased or  increased  t  and 
to  what  extent  ? 


21  Johnson,   W.  'E.— Fresh  A  very  decided   decrease, 
and  Smoked  Meats.  almost  50  per   cent,  or 

I     quite. 


23  Kalb,    Frederick    G.— [My  sales  less  than  during 
Groceries  and  Produce.      Prohibition   on  account 
I    laboring  classes    buying 
inferior  goods, 

23  Kei.ly,    C.   H.,    &  Co.— 
Wholesale  Grocers. 


24  Kimball,  J.H.,  Sr.,  &  Co. 
—Dry  Goods  and  Cloth- 
ing. 


25  KiLPATRicK,  J.  W.— Gro- 

cer. 

26  Kino    Hardware    Co.— 

Hardware. 


27  KiRKE,  Thomas  &  Co.— 

Hardware. 

28  Lyon,  J.  A.— Grocer 


29  McDonald.  N.  D.,  &  Co. 
—Booksellers  and  Jiind- 
ers. 

80  Mauch,     M.     M.  —WaU 

Paper  and  Paints. 

81  Morris    A    Murpiiet— 

WhoUsale  Orocem. 

82  Neal,  J ohs— Furniture.. 


Phillips  St  Co.— Furni- 
ture and  Money  Broker. 


Our  trade  is  at  least  20  per 
cent,  less  since  the  re 
turn  of  the  bar-rooms. 


Decrease. 


None. 


n 


sales  have  decreased  at 
east  15  per  cent. 


I  sell  less  for  cash  •  could 
sell  more  on  credit,  but 
know  can't  pay  now  as 
did  under  Prohibition. 

My  credit  sales,  if  allowed, 
would  increase  greatly  ; 
but  credit  being  refused, 
they  buy  cheaper  goods. 

I  don't  sell  any  to  working- 
men. 


The  demand  for  credit  is 
much  greater  ;  men  per- 
fectly responsible  before 
return  of  bar-rooms  will 
not  pay  at  all  now. 

Sell  about  25  per  cent.  less. 


About  the  same. 

Credit  sales  increased  ;  cash 
sales  decreased. 


No  change  from  a  gradual  |  No  change, 
increase. 


Don't  see  working  people 
in  my  line  of  trade. 


Sales  decreased  aboat  one- 
third. 


Have  made  no  calculation 
as  to  the  difference. 


Cannot  tell. 


Credit  sales  increased  large- 
ly- 

During  Prohibition  we  gave 
such  large  credit  that  It 
will  take  all  Anti- Pro- 
hibition to  collect. 


ATLANTA. 


806 


NESS  MEN   OF  ATLANTA- Cbn!tnued 


3.  Do  you  notice  that  it 
is  easier  or  Iianler  now  to 
make  collection?  in  At- 
lanta than  it  was  under 
Prohibition  ?  In  othe  r 
words,  does  the  number  of 
"  bad  debts"  have  a  ten- 
dency to  increase  or  de- 
crease ? 


Much  harder  to  collect 
now  ;  almost  impossible 
to  collect  from  working- 
meu  who  visit  bar-rooms. 

The  number  of  bad  debts 
increases  as  more  money 
is  spent  for  liquor. 


I  find  it  a  great  deal  harder 
to  collect  than  in  time  of 
Prohibition. 

Much  harder,  debts  in- 
creasing. 


Bad  debts  increased. 


4.  Do  vou  find  the  work- 
inji;  fK'onle  now  purchasing 
•generally  a  cheai)er  or  a 
i»etter  class  of  goods  than 
under  Prohibition  ?  If  so, 
give  some  examples  of 
what  they  buy  now  com- 
pared with  formerly. 


6.  In  your  opinion  would 
It  or  would  it  not  be  a  ben- 
efit to  business  generally  if 
the  money  now  spent  In 
the  saloons  should  be  spent 
for  clothing,  fuel,  furni- 
ture, etc.,  and  the  other 
comforts  and  necessaries 
of  life  r 


They  bought  better  meats 
than  now,  and  much  more 
liberally.  Now  they  buy 
the  cheapest  they  can  get. 

During  Prohibition  the 
working  class  indulged  in 
luxuries,  but  now  confine 
themselves  to  bread  and 
meat. 

I  have  noticed  no  differ- 
ence. 


The  demand  for  cheaper 
goods  has  increased. 
This  effect  is  felt  on  all 
conditions  and  profes- 
sions. 

I*urchase  cheaper  goods 
than  formerly. 


See  no  difference. 

Bad  debts  have  increased 
tenfold  ;  collections  im- 
possible. 

No  change  to  note. 


Our  trade  never  better. 


It  would  be  of  incalculable  21 
benefit  to  all  other  busi- 
ness except  iho  whiskey 
trade.    I  know  the  good 
it  did  us. 

Of  course.  22 


I  know  the  working  people  28 
were  in  a  much  better 
condition    during     Pro- 
hibition. 

Much  better.  24 


Would  benefit  bosiness  in  25 
my  opinion. 

Money  spent  for  whiskey  28 
lost  toother  lines  of  trade; 
whiskey  makes  men  un- 
able to  earn  monev,  thus 
bringing  double  Joss  to 
business. 

Undoubtedly.  27 


Neither  ;  only  less  in  quan-  Yes!    Yes!!    Yes!!! 
tity.  I    Yes  !  1  !  1 

We  can  note  no  change. 


DouHknow  any  difference, 


Saloons  serm  bat  as  other  29 
mediums  of  circulation. 


Of  course  it  would.  80 

Anti  Prohibition  81 


We    an 

folks. 

Much  harder  to  make  col- 'Purchase    cheaper  goods,  A  thoosand  times  better  ;  89 
lections.     Bad  debts  in-     Imitation  instead  of  gen-     but    Prohibition     don't 
creased.  |    nine.  )    prohibit. 

Bad  debts  are  decreasing  Selling    about    the    same  It  would  be  beneficial  if  all  88 


slowly— as  we  put  on  the 
hydraulic  presbure. 


class  of  goods. 


saloon  customers  would 
spend  money  with  us ; 
but  it  will  never  be  as 
long  as  rye  is  made. 


306 


ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 


TABLE  OF  REPLIES  FROM  47  BUSI- 


1.  Have  you  noticed  elnce] 
'the  return  of  the  open  bar-j    2.  Do  you  sell  more  or 
jrooras  to  Atlanta  any  in- |les8  on  average  to  working- 


creaee  or  decrease  in  the 

average   amount   of  your 

Najib  JkXJ>  Business,    sales  to  the  workingmen, 

las  compared  with  sales  to 


men  for  cash  than  you  did 
under  Prohibition  —  in 
other  word:?,  have  your 
credit  sales  to  this  class  of 


the  same  class  of  peoplelpeople  proportionately  dc- 
' under  Prohibition  ?    If  eo,  creased  or  increased  ?  and 
which?   and  to  what  ex- to  what  extent  ? 
tent? 


34  Pbicb  &  YoBTVR— Shoes. 


85  Prior,  G.  8.— Groceries. 


We  found  it  easier  du 
Prohibition  to  sell 
goods  than  now. 

My  trade  confined  mostly  My  opinion  is  that  the 
to  customers  whom  pren- 1  working  class  spend  some 
ence  of  whiskey  does,  less  with  me  than  during 
not  affect.  Prohibition. 

88  Bridoer,    J.    C.  —  Coal  A  slight  decrease.  , Credit  sales  increased. 

Merchant.  I 

87  Bagsdale,  I.  N.— G^rocer- My  trade  not  as  good  as; More   demand    for    credit 
ies  and  Provisions.  under  Prohibition.  than  when  had  no  whis- 

I  key. 

Sales  decreased  very  per-  Risky  to  sell  on  credit  to  a 
ceptibly  from  the  first!  workingman  who  drinks. 
Saturday  night  I 

Have  been  unable  to  dis- 

cern  any  effect  on   our 

business.  | 

Perceptible  decrease  cash  The  largest  number  are  now 


88  Rice,  R  J.— Grocer. 


39  Richards,  S    P.,   &  Son 

—Books,  Stationery  and 
Music. 

40  Redus,  R.  R.— Wholesale 


Fruits  and  Fish. 


sales  to  workingmen  j 
since  defeat  of  Prohibi- 
tion. 


less  worthy  of  credit. 


41  Reese,  n.  0.—  (?roaT....  My  sales  slightly  decreased- Sell   less   for    cash, 

sales  increased. 


42  Rtan's  Sons,  John— 
WhjolesaU,  JfetaU  Dry 
Goods,  Boots  and  Shoes. 


4.3  Sawtell,  T.  R.— Whole- 
sale, Retail  Butcher. 


44  Thornton    &    Orttbb— 

Books  and  Stationery. 

45  Trkadwell,   Charles— 

Furniture  Dealer. 

49  Vaughan,  C.  J.—Bxloov. 


Have  noticed  no  change. 


Noticed   one-third   oft  in 
sales. 


time 


.\bout  the  same. 


Cash  sales  decreased  one- 
third. 


My  PAI.E8   TO   woriuno-;Thet  do   not   ask   for 

MEN  HAVE  INCREASED.  CREDIT,      BUT     PAT      AS 

THEY   OO. 


47  WlLsox,    R     W.  — C^n/VNot   much    difference,    if  Credit  pnlc«nro  just  ns  pood 
Furnishing    and     l>ry\    any  ;  return  of  bar-rooms,    as  under  Prohibition. 
Ocods.  I    in  my  favor.  I 


ATLANTA. 


307 


NESS   MEN   OF   ATLANTA— Con/inued 


8.  Do  yoa  notice  that  it 
ie  easier  or  harder  now  to 
make  collection?  in  At- 
lanta than  it  was  under 
Prohibition?  In  other 
words,  does  the  number  of 
"  bad  debts"  have  a  ten- 
dency to  increase  or  de- 
crease f 


Do  not  notice  any  particu- 
lar diflfereme  ;  'my  house 
not  in  neighborhood 
working  people. 

Bad  debts  have  increased. 


Think  bad  debts  have  in- 
creased. 

Harder  to  collect  ;  men 
who  paid  under  Prohibi- 
tion now  do  not  pay  at  all. 


4.  Do  you  find  the  work 
ing  people  now  purchasing 
generally  a  cheaper  or  a 
better  class  of  goods  than 
under  I*rohibiLion  *  If  so, 
give  some  examples  of 
what  they  buy  now  com- 
pared with  formerly. 


6.  In  your  opinion  would 
it  or  would  it  not  be  a  ben- 
efit to  business  generally  if 
the  money  now  spent  in 
the  saloons  should  be  spent 
for  clothing,  fuel,  furni- 
ture, etc.,  and  the  other 
comforts  and  necessaries 
of  life  ? 


About  the   same  class  of 
goods. 


Don't    notice    any    diflfer- 
ence. 


Cheaper  in  mv  line  ;  now 
want  the  cheapest,  for- 
merly the  best. 

Nearly  same,  but  in  less 
amounts. 

They  buy  nothing  but  the 
barest  necessaries. 


Collections  much  harder  to  Am  not  Informed, 
make ;    prettv    fair   in- 
crease "  bad  debts." 


Harder  now  to  collect ; 
great  many  cases  impos- 
sible. 


Have  noticed  no  change. 


Harder  to  make  collec- 
tions ;  debts  increase. 

I  FIND  IT  EASIER  TO  COL- 
LECT Ur  RKNTS  NOW 
THAN  DURING  PROHIBI- 
TION. 

Think  collections  Iwtter ; 
.\tlanta  never  more  pros- 
perojis. 


I  see  no  change. 


See  no  change. 


Purchase  cheaper  goods, 
soft  wood  instead  of  wal- 
nut. 

Cannot  bat  as  to  rrn- 

NITl'RK.BL'T  PROM  WHAT 
I  SEE  THEY  BUY  BETTER 
goods  NOW. 

Buy  as  good  goods*  and  as 
many  as  under  Prohibi- 
tion. 


If  Prohibition  had  been  con-  S4 
tinued    long    enough    it 
would  have  been  a  de- 
cided benefit  to  business. 

Of    course ;    it  could    not  85 
possibly  be  otherwise. 


Be  great  benefit  to   have  86 
money     diverted     from 
saloons. 

Business    would   be    gen- 87 
erally  better. 

Would    increase   business  88 
one-third. 

Such   would   certainly  be  89 
the  case  in  this  city  as  in 
any  other. 

Undoubtedlv  ;  alarming  In- 40 
crease  of  levies  and  sale 
of  working  people's  ef- 
fects   over    Pronibitjon 
period. 

Would  be  extremely  bene-  41 
flcial. 

Prohibition  campaign  most  42 
injurious,  disgusting  pro- 
ceeding launched  on  suf- 
fering public,  paralyzing 
business,  estranging 
friends. 

It   would  ;    whiskey   was  4Ji 
sold  so  close  to  Atlanta 
that  all  who  wished  could 
send  for  it. 

Yes!    Yes  1  !    Ycsl!  144 
Ye*«  1  !  !  I 

Yes,  better  State  by  $2,-45 
000,000. 

I      THINK      NOT.         DoH'T  46 
THINK    rAMILY    IN   CITT 
BUrFERS        PROM       HUS- 
BAND'S DRINKINO. 

It  would  If  they  would  pur-  47 
cb.isc  g(Kxl8  with  money. 


308  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

SUMMARY  OF  PRECEDING  TABLE. 

Question  I. — Have  you  noticed  since  the  return  of 
the  open  bar-rooms  to  Atlanta  any  increase  or  decrease 
in  the  average  amount  of  your  sales  to  workingmen,  as 
compared  with  sales  to  the  same  class  of  people  under 
Prohibition  ?     If  so,  which,  and  to  what  extent  ? 

Forty  replies  (excluding  2  saloon-keepers,  whose  sales  are  much 
greater),  of  which  26  report  a  decided  decrease  ;  4  report  that  their 
trade  is  not  with  the  workingmen  ;  6  see  no  difference  ;  3,  that 
business  is  better  ;  1,  increase  in  some  lines  of  business,  decrease  in 
others. 

Question  II. — Do  you  sell  more  or  less  on  an  average 
to  workingmen  for  cash  than  you  did  under  Prohibition  ? 
In  other  words,  have  your  credit  sales  to  that  class  of 
people  proportionately  decreased  or  increased,  and  to 
what  extent  ? 

Thirty-seven  replies  (excluding  2  saloon-keepers,  who  sell  more  for 
cash),  of  which  27  reply  that  there  are  less  sales  for  cash  and  a 
greater  demand  for  credit  ;  6  report  no  change  ;  1  does  not  credit  ; 
1  cannot  tell  ;  1  does  not  sell  to  workingmen  ;  1  gives  an  evasive 
answer. 

Question  III. — Do  you  notice  that  it  is  easier  or 
harder  now  to  make  collections  in  Atlanta  than  it  was 
under  Prohibition  ?  In  other  words,  does  the  number  of 
*'  bad  debts"  have  a  tendency  to  increase  or  decrease  ? 

Thirty-four  replies  (excluding  2  saloon-keepers,  whose  collections 
are  much  better),  of  which  26  report  that  collections  are  harder  or 
"  bad  debts"  are  increasing  ;  5  notice  no  difference  ;  1  cannot  say  ; 
1,    *  bad  debts"  decreasing  under  pressure  ;  1,  collections  better. 

Question  IV. — Do  you  find  the  working  people  now 

purchasing  generally  a  cheaper  or  better  class  of  goods 

than  under  Prohibition  ? 

Thirty-eight  replies  (exclnsive  of  2  saloon-keepers,  who  And  that 
better  goods  are  purchaned),  of  which  17  reply  that  cheaper  goods 


ATLANTA.  809 

are  pnrchaRed  ;  20  notice  no  difference,  except  that  some  find  a  less 
quantity  is  j)urchaHed  ;  1,  "  Onr  trade  never  better." 

Question  V. — In  your  opinion,  would  it  or  would  it 
not  be  a  benefit  to  business  generally  if  the  money  now 
spent  in  the  saloons  should  be  spent  for  clothing,  fuel, 
furniture,  etc.,  and  the  other  comforts  and  necessaries 
of  life  ? 

Forty-four  replies  (exclusive  of  2  saloon-keepers),  of  which  38  reply 
affirmatively;  1,  "Prohibition  cannot  be  enforced;"  1  "thinks 
saloons  best;"  1,  "Saloons  but  as  other  mediums  of  circulation;" 
1,  •' We  are  Anti -Prohibition  folks  ;"  1,  ♦*  It  will  never  be  ;"  1,  "Pro- 
hibition campaign  injurious. " 

The  answers  to  Question  V  are  a  sufficient  explanation 
for  the  results  set  forth  in  the  table.  Much  of  the 
money  that  went  during  the  Prohibition  period  to  the 
retail  merchants  for  food,  clothing,  furniture,  and  other 
necessaries  of  life  is  now  worse  than  wasted  in  the  High 
License  saloons. 

TESTIMONY  OF  THE    MERCHANTS  AS  TO  THE   EFFECTS  OF  HIGH 

LICENSE. 

The  following  are  samples  of  the  replies  received  from 
the  business  men  of  Atlanta  : 

THEY  don't   BT7Y   BY  THE   HALF -TON   NOW. 

H.  T.  Htiff,  coal  and  wood  dealer  :  **  When  the  bars  were  closed 
in  Atlanta  the  workingmen  used  to  come  and  buy  from  me  by  the 
half-ton  ;  now  they  buy  only  twenty-five  and  fifty  cents  worth  at  a 
time.  I  sell  less  for  canh  to  workingmen  than  I  did  during  Prohibi- 
tion, and  I  find  that  it  won't  do  to  give  credit  at  all.  It  is  harder 
now  than  it  was  under  Prohibition  to  make  collections  from  the 
class  of  people  who  spend  their  money  at  the  bars.  Among  this 
class  it  is  now  the  practice  to  buy  the  cheapest  articles  they  can  get, 
whereas  they  used  to  buy  the  best  while  we  had  Prohibition.  I  think 
Prohibition  is  the  best  thing  that  can  ever  happen  to  a  town  or 
place." 


310  ECOI^^OMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

J.  C.  Daniel,  boots  and  shoes  :  ••  I  have  noticed  a  decrease  in  the 
average  amount  of  sales  to  workingmen  since  the  legalized  bar-rooms 
returned.  It  is  difficult  to  state  the  extent  of  the  decrease,  but  I 
should  say  about  one-half.  I  sell  less  to  workingmen  for  cash,  and 
the  demand  for  credit  has  greatly  increased.  It  is  much  harder  to 
make  collections.  Bad  debts  increase  rapidly,  although  I  am  much 
more  cautious  now  than  I  was  during  the  reign  of  Prohibition. 
Cheaper  goods  are  purchased  now.  The  working  people  buy  shoes 
now  worth  from  $1  to  $1.50,  whereas  during  Prohibition  they  bought 
shoes  costing  from  $2  to  $2  50  and  frequently  $3.  Most  emphati- 
cally, I  think  it  would  be  a  benefit  to  business  generally  if  the  money 
now  spent  in  saloons  were  spent  for  the  necessaries  of  life.  I  am  a 
Prohibitionist,  but  I  have  not  put  my  answer  too  strong.  I  am  also 
a  Democrat  and  belong  to  the  Solid  South." 

SAIiZS   TO   WORKINGMEN  FIFTY   PER  CENT.  LESS. 

W.  E.  Johnson,  fresh  and  smoked  meats  :  "  There  has  been  a  very 
decided  decrease  in  my  sales  to  workingmen  since  the  Prohibitory 
law  was  done  away  with — almost  or  quite  50  per  cent.  I  sell  less 
for  cash  and  could  sell  more  for  credit,  but  I  know  that  the  working 
classes  can't  pay  now  as  they  did  under  Prohibition.  I  know  from 
experience.  It  is  much  harder  to  collect  money  now — almost  im- 
possible to  collect  from  those  workingmen  who  visit  barrooms.  As 
a  general  thing,  these  classes  bought  better  meats  under  Prohibition 
than  they  buy  now,  and  much  more  liberally  ;  they  purchased  the 
best  then,  but  now  they  want  the  cheapest  they  can  get.  Prohibition 
would  be  of  incalculable  benefit  to  all  lines  of  business  except  the 
whiskey  trade.  I  know  this  because  we  have  experienced  it  and 
know  the  good  it  did  us." 

W.  J.  Gramling,  dry  goods  :  ••  The  decrease  in  my  sales  to  work- 
ingmen since  the  return  of  the  open  bar-rooms  is,  I  think,  about  20 
per  cent.  We  refuse  credit  now  more  than  we  did  during  Prohibi- 
tion. The  working  people  buy  cheaper  grades  of  goods  ;  for  in- 
stance, under  Prohibition  they  bought  hosiery  worth  twenty-five 
cents,  and  now  they  want  ten  and  fifteen-cent  hosiery  ;  for  flannels 
they  would  pay  thirty-five  to  fifty  cents,  but  now  they  pay  twenty 
to  thirty  centu  ;  they  used  to  buy  shoes  worth  $1  50  to  $2,  but  now 
they  give  only  $1  to  $1.50.  It  would  be  a  good  thing  to  throw  the 
money  now  spent  in  the  saloons  into  other  lines  of  trade,  if  that 
could  be  arranged  ;  for  the  people  spend  money  for  whiskey  when 


ATLANTA.  311 

not  able  to  do  so,  and  hence  their  families  have  to  do  without  the 
comforts  of  life." 

THE   BAB-BOOMS   HURT   HIM  "  VEBY   SEBI0U8LT." 

John  E.  Evins,  dealer  in  furniture  :  "  When  the  bar-rooms  returned 
I  felt  the  result  very  seriously  by  a  falling  off  of  trade,  and  especially 
of  collections.  My  trade  is  good  and  has  been  on  the  increase  from 
the  beginning  of  my  business.  I  sell  almost  altogether  on  the  instal- 
ment plan.  There  is  less  disposition  and  less  ability  to  pay  now 
than  there  was  during  Prohibition.  It  is  much  harder  to  collect  now 
than  it  was  during  Prohibition.  "When  the  bar-rooms  returned  my 
collections  fell  off  fully  25  per  cent.  There  has  been  one  continuous 
demand  for  cheaper  goods  ever  since  the  bar-rooms  returned.  I  am 
selling  on  an  average  about  25  per  cent,  cheaper  than  formerly.  It 
would  surely  be  a  great  benefit  to  the  entire  community  if  the  money 
now  spent  in  saloons  were  properly  spent  for  the  necessaries  of  life." 

C.  H.  Burge,  retail  grocer  :  "  I  find  a  decrease  of  sales— especially 
to  the  working  classes — as  compared  with  sales  during  Prohibition. 
My  cash  trade  has  fallen  off  25  per  cent.,  and  my  credit  trade  has 
increased  about  that  much.  It  is  much  harder  to  make  collections 
now  than  it  was  during  Prohibition — much  harder.  The  working- 
men  now  get  a  cheaper  class  of  goods  ;  indeed,  they  now  want  the 
cheapest  every  time.  In  my  opinion,  our  cash  sales  would  increase 
tenfold  if  the  bar-rooms  were  closed.  The  money  that  was  formerly 
spent  for  groceries  now  goes  for  whiskey." 

THE  OBeXtEST  evil  ATLAKTA  EVEB  HAD. 

T.  J.  Buchanan,  family  groceries  :  "  Yes,  there  has  been  a  de- 
crease of  sales  to  workingmen  since  the  bar-rooms  came  back— about 
25  per  cent.  I  sell  less  for  cash  to  these  classes  now,  and  the  extent 
of  the  falling  off  is  considerable.  It  is  much  harder  to  make  collec- 
tions now.  A  great  many  who  formerly  spent  their  money  for  pro- 
visions now  buy  on  time  and  spend  their  money  in  the  bar  rooms 
and  leave  their  grocery  bills  unpaid.  As  to  the  class  of  goods  bought 
I  notice  no  marked  difference.  Most  undoubtedly  it  would  be  of 
advantage  to  business  generally  if  the  money  now  spent  in  the 
saloons  were  spent  for  the  comforts  and  necessaries  of  life.  The  re- 
opening of  the  bar-rooms  in  our  city  is  the  greatest  evil  that  ever 
befel  it." 

D.  J.  Baker,  general  merchandise  :  "I  have  noticed  a  decrease  in 
my  trade  with  working  people  since  Prohibition  oeH8<»d  — I  suppose 


312  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

about  20  per  cent.  I  sell  less  for  cash  by  50  per  cent.  In  my  trade 
I  find  it  much  harder  to  make  collections,  I  cannot  say  that  there 
have  been  any  cheaper  goods  used  in  my  business,  for  I  don't  handle 
any  cheap  goods  or  shoddy  stufE.  I  know  that  money  spent  for 
liquor  is  a  blank—  a  complete  loss  to  women  and  children  who  need 
it.     I  can't  express  my  opinion  strong  enough  on  this  subject." 

THE   FIBST  SATUBDAY  NIGHT  OP  LICENSE. 

B.  C.  Brooks  &  Brother,  furniture  :  "  We  can  truthfully  say  that 
on  the  first  Saturday  night  after  the  return  of  the  bar-rooms  our  sales 
showed  a  decrease  of  $28,  and  that  our  sales  to  working  people  have 
fallen  off  about  one-half.  Our  cash  sales  to  workingmen  are  only 
about  one-fourth  what  they  were  under  the  Prohibitory  law.  "We 
used  to  collect  from  $75  to  $100  per  week,  but  now  we  can  get  only 
$25  to  |40,  and  it  is  very  hard  work  to  get  that.  The  working 
classes  now  buy  the  cheapest  goods,  mostly  second-hand." 

J.  W.  Brooks  &  Co.,  retail  grocers  :  "I  have  experienced  a  con- 
siderably decreased  trade  since  Prohibition  went  out— at  least  20 
per  cent.  I  sell  50  per  cent,  less  for  cash  than  I  did  under  Prohibi- 
tion. Collections  from  the  laboring  class  do  not  show  near  so  good 
as  they  did  during  Prohibition.  I  can  cheerfully  answer  from  per- 
sonal experience  that  it  would  undoubtedly  be  better  for  business  if 
the  money  now  spent  in  saloons  were  spent  for  the  comforts  and 
necessaries  of  life." 

BAD   DEBTS   HAVE  INCBEASXD. 

J.  H.  Kimbrell,  Sr,  &.  Co.,  dry  goods  and  clothing  :  *«  Our  trade 
with  the  working  classes  is  at  least  20  per  cent,  smaller  since  the  re- 
turn of  bar-rooms.  The  demand  for  credit  is  much  greater.  Men 
who  were  perfectly  responsible  when  we  had  no  bar-rooms  will  not 
pay  at  all  now.  It  is  much  harder  to  make  collections,  and  bad 
debts  have  increased.  The  demand  for  cheaper  goods  has  increased. 
This  does  not  apply  altogether  to  working  people,  but  the  same  is 
true  to  some  extent  of  all  conditions  and  professions.  It  would  be 
much  better  for  business  if  there  were  no  money  spent  in  saloons.  Let 
me  give  you  an  illustration  :  On  Decatur  Street  there  are  twenty  two 
bar  rooms  paying  11, 000  license  and  two  beer  saloons  paying  $100 
license  ;  add  house  rents  for  these  places,  clerk  hire,  cost  of  fixtures, 
and  cost  of  goods,  and  an  enormous  amount  of  money  is  represented, 
for  which  the  consumer  getn  nothing  in  retam." 


ATLANTA.  818 

"a   thousand    TlMl.S    IJKTTER." 

John  Neal,  fomiture  :  "There  htm  been  a  decrease  in  my  sales  of 
say  about  one-third  to  the  working  people  since  Ihe  bar-rooms  came 
back.  We  sell  less  to  them  for  cash,  and  credit  has  decreased 
largely.  It  is  much  harder  to  make  collections,  and  bad  debts  in- 
crease in  consequence.  The  working  people  are  purchasing  cheaper 
goods  ;  they  buy  imitation  goods  instead  of  the  genuine.  It  would 
be  a  thousand  times  better  for  the  trade  if  the  money  spent  in  saloons 
were  spent  for  comforts  and  necessaries." 

ALL  THE  ANSWERS  GIVEN,  BOTH    FAVORABLE  AND  UNFAVOR- 
ABLE  TO    PROHIBITION. 

Many  more  letters  containing  testimony  similar  to  the 
above  might  be  given.. 

All  the  answers  received  from  the  forty-seven  business 
men  replying,  whether  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  Pro- 
hibition, have  been  given  in  the  foregoing  table,  and 
may  be  summarized  in  the  following  general  statements  : 

1.  That  sales  of  goods  to  workingmen  have  greatly  de- 
creased when  compared  with  the  Prohibition  period  ; 

2.  That  the  proportion  of  credit  sales  has  greatly  in- 
creased, less  being  bought  for  cash  ; 

3.  That  under  High  License  **  bad  debts"  have  in- 
creased and  collections  are  harder  to  make  than  they  were 
during  Prohibition  ;  and 

4.  That  business  men  are  selling  a  cheaper  class  of 
goods  and  taking  in  less  cash  than  they  did  in  Prohibi- 
tion days. 

The  testimony  of  these  replies  is  overwhelmingly  to 
the  effect  tliat  the  returning  saloons  under  High  License 
have  injured  business  in  Atlanta  and  rendered  woree 
the  condition  of  the  poor.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find 
a  fairer  test,  and  the  conclusion  is  inevital)le  that,  leav- 
ing moral  and  humanitarian  considerations  wholly  out  of 


314  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION'. 

account,  merely  as  a  matter  of  profit  and  loss,  High 
License  as  compared  with  Prohibition  is  an  unqualified 
financial  curse,  blunder,  and  disaster. 

And  this  testimony  of  injury  to  business  and  decreased 
personal  prosperity  comes  during  a  period  of  great  general 
prosperity  (1889)  in  the  nation  at  large,  and  while  Atlanta 
herself  is  increasing  in  population  and  enterprise. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  NEW  LANDS. 

"  What  beings  fill  those  bright  abodes? 
How  formed,  how  gifted  ?     What  their  powers,  their  state  ? 
««***«  >• 

Has  War  trod  o'er  them  with  his  foot  of  fire  ? 
And  Slavery  forged  his  chains,  and  Wrath  and  Hate, 
And  sordid  Selfishness  and  cruel  Lust 
Leagued  their  base  bands  to  tread  out  light  and  truth. 
And  scatter  woe,  where  Heaven  had  planted  joy  ? 
Or  are  they  yet  all  Paradise,  unfallen 
And  uncorrupt  ?  existence  one  long  joy. 
Without  disease  upon  the  frame  or  sin 
Upon  the  heart,  or  weariness  of  life  ?" 

*  — Henry  ITore,  Jr. 

Both  Dakotasfor  Prohibition  give  us  a  light  of  hope. 
Numerous  Iowa  men  have  settled  there  and  given 
their  influence  for  the  system  they  left  in  their  own 
State.  The  new  laws  seem  to  be  stringent,  and  should 
succeed,  if  men,  good,  true,  and  brave,  stand  firmly  by 
them.  The  young  States  have  done  nobly.  Just  when 
older  States  at  the  East  had  voted  down  Prohibition, 
and  the  Liquor  Traflfic,  flushed  with  victory,  concentrated 
upon  them,  with  menaces  in  one  hand  and  bribes  in  the 
other,  those  stanch  pioneers  resisted  both  and  voted  out 
the  saloon  from  their  borders.  It  is  too  soon  for  statis- 
tics, but  it  is  beautiful  to  think  what  a  civilization  may 
be  which  is  built  up  from  the  beginning  without  the 
saloon. 


310  ECOXOMICS    OF    PROillBlTION. 

Oklahoma  has,  however,  given  a  practical  illustration 
of  the  worth  of  Prohibition  which  there  is  no  gainsaying. 
Major  J.  A.  Pickler,  one  of  the  Congressmen  from 
South  Dakota,  made  the  following  statement  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  : 

"I  was  in  Oklahoma  for  two  months  during  the  opening  of  the 
Territory,  as  an  agent  of  the  Interior  Department.  Fifty  thousand 
people  came  into  Oklahoma  within  twenty-four  hours,  all  strangers 
to  each  other,  as  many  as  a  dozen  men  claiming  one  town  lot  on 
which  they  had  squatted,  and  four  or  five  claiming  the  same  tract  of 
land.  With  no  laws  to  govern  this'people  except  the  general  laws 
of  the  United  States,  without  a  governor,  sheriff,  or  constable,  we 
had  perfect  peace  and  order,  with  no  bloodshed  whatever  for  six 
montns.  I,  as  did  all  thinking  men,  attributed  it  to  the  Prohibition 
by  the  Government  of  any  liquor  being  brought  into  the  Territory. 
This  is  a  complete  demonstration  that  the  National  Government  can 
thoroughly  and  successfully  enforce  Prohibition.  I  have  no  doubt 
but  that  it  could  enforce  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia  or  any  place. 

"  When  yon  get  the  United  States  Government  to  take  hold  of  the 
liquor  traffic,"  added  Congressman  Pickler,  "  the  traflic's  life  will  be 
short." 

Oklahoma  is  under  the  laws  of  the  Indian  Territory, 
which  are  strictly  prohibitory.  The  United  States  otHcers 
examine  suspected  baggage  for  liquor,  even  searching 
grip-sacks  for  the  contraband  article,  and  throwing  out 
and  smashing  any  bottles  of  liquor  they  find.  The 
Chicago  Lever  contains  the  following  : 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  August  12,  1889  {Special  Correspondence).— The 
Lever  correspondent  has  just  returned  from  an  extensive  trip  through 
the  great  Prohibition  State  of  Kansas  and  the  Prohibition  Territory 
of  Oklahoma,  and  is  more  firmly  convinced  than  ever  that  the  United 
States  Government  should  be  the  party  to  take  up  the  cudgel  and 
wield  it  the  same  in  the  States  as  it  does  in  the  Indian  Territory  and 
Oklahoma,  where  Uncle  Sam  has  sole  jurisdiction  of  affairs.  This 
national  idea  is  very  plainly  demonstrated  in  the  new  promised  and 
possessed  land  of  Oklahoma,  and  the  Lever  representative  saw  United 
States  regulars  go  through  the  grips  on  the  cars  at  Oklahoma  City, 


THE    XEW    LANDS.  317 

before  the  passengers  were  allowed  to  leave  the  train,  and  several 
bottles  were  broken  by  being  thrown  oat  of  the  windows.  There 
had  been  evidences  that  liquor  was  being  smuggled  into  the  city  in 
that  manner,  and  the  officers  took  i  i  the  situation  at  once. 

This  process  is  SO  effectual  that  the  liquor  sympathizers 
in  Congress,  in  the  bill  giving  Oklahoma  a  territorial  gov- 
ernment, made  a  crafty  attempt  to  nullify  Prohibition 
by  tlie  following  provision  : 

"  Section  7.  —That  the  general  statutes  of  Nebraska,  which  are  not 
locally  inapplicable  or  in  conflict  with  this  act,  or  in  conflict  with 
any  law  of  the  United  States,  are  hereby  extended  to  and  put  in 
force  in  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma  until  after  the  adjournment  of 
the  first  session  of  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  said  Territory." 

This,  of  couree,  would  have  given  over  the  new  Terri- 
tory to  High  License.  To  Major  Pickler  belongs  the 
honor  of  pointing  out  and  attacking  this  insidious  pro- 
vision. 

In  a  speech  on  the  Oklahoma  bill,  printed  in  The  Con- 
gressional Record  for  March  4rth,  he  said  : 

"The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  refused  to  allow  the 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma.  And 
wisely,  Mr.  Speaker,  did  the  Government  refuse  to  allow  the  ship- 
ment of  intoxicating  liquors  into  this  Territory.  In  my  judgment, 
had  liquor  been  allowed  to  be  sold  in  Ihat  Territory  during  the 
settlement,  no  such  record  of  order  and  bloodless  history  of  occu- 
pancy would  have  been  known  as  has  become  the  history  of  Okla- 
homa. 

"It  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  daring  the  coming  contests 
concerning  the  organization  of  counties,  the  locations  of  county 
seats,  the  selection  of  the  capital  of  the  Territory,  the  election  of 
officers,  and,  more  than  all,  the  exciting  contests  concerning  the 
ownership  of  the  lands  and  town  lots  of  (his  Territory,  wherein  one 
man  will  be  dispossessed  and  the  title  declared  in  another,  and  in 
the  many  other  exciting  scenes  and  contests  that  must  ensne  in  the 
organization  of  this  Territory,  it  would  be  far  better  that  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  should  continue  the  policy  heretofore  pur 


318  ECONOiMICS   OF    PKOHIBITION. 

sued  by  the  General  Government  of  preventing  the  sale  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors  in  this  Territory  until  they  are  organized  and  have 
themselves  legislated  upon  this  question. 

"As  I  understand  it,  under  the  laws  of  Nebraska,  "which  under 
this  bill  govern  this  people,  and  to  which  I  object,  upon  the  petition 
of  thirty  freeholders  a  license  is  granted  for  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  Under  this  law  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  saloons 
will  be  opened  in  Oklahoma  in  a  remarkably  short  time  after  the 
passage  of  this  act. 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  in  the  interest  of  a  peaceable  organization  of  that 
Territory,  in  the  interest  of  the  harmony  and  good  name  of  this 
people,  who  are  a  grand  people,  and  for  whom,  after  months  of  inti- 
mate intercourse  with  them,  I  have  the  highest  respect  and  regard, 
I  do  not  believe  Congress  should  permit  this  great  promoter  of  dis- 
cord to  be  brought  among  them, 

"  Why  not  substitute  the  laws  of  Kansas  instead  of  Nebraska?  I 
believe  one-fourth  of  the  people  in  that  Territory  were  former  resi- 
dents of  Kansas  ;  they  are  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  Kansas,  and 
the  administration  of  Kansas  laws,  and  the  procedure  in  Kansas 
courts.  Mr.  Speaker,  they  have  acted  largely  under  Kansas  laws  in 
their  proceedings  so  far  in  this  Territory.  The  city  of  Oklahoma 
adopted  the  laws  of  Kansas  in  its  organization. 

"  This  Territory  is  in  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  of  Kansas,  the 
United  States  Marshals  ordered  to  that  Territory  to  preserve  the 
peace  are  Kansas  officers,  and  they  are  the  officers  who  now  are  in 
this  Territory  preserving  order.  Prisoners  arrested  therein  are  sent 
to  Kansas  for  trial,  and  from  every  standpoint  it  seems  to  me  Kansas 
laws  should  be  the  ones  for  the  present  government  of  this  people, 
and  under  these  laws  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  would  be  pro- 
hibited. And  I  know  it  is  the  desire  of  the  people  of  that  Territory 
that  Congress  should  protect  them  in  this  regard  as  the  Government 
has  in  the  past." 

Subsequently  Major  Pickler  said,  in  sin  interview  : 

••  I  CAJffNOT  POSSIBLY  UNDERSTAND  HOW  THESE  CAN  BE  ANT  OPPOSITION 
TO  LETTING  THOSE  PEOPLE  LIVE  IN  PEACE,  AS  THEY  HAVE  DONE  EVEN  WITH- 

OHT  LAWS.     The  fact  is,  the  American  people  don't  seem  to  need 

LAWS  POR  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  OOOD  ORDER  EXCEPT  WHERE  THERE  IH 
WHISKEY.'* 

The  House  of  Representatives,  on  March  13th,  1889. 


THE    NEW    LANDS.  .'U  9 

amended  the  bill  by  a  vote  of  134  to  104,  extending  the 
provisions  of  Section  2,139  (proliibiting  the  introduction 
of  intoxicating  L'quors  into  Indian  Teiritory)  to  the  Terri- 
tory of  Okhihoma.  So  there  is  good  hope  that  the  new 
Territory  may  never  know  the  curoo  of  the  saloon.  Let 
ua  rejoice  that  Congress  has  decided  to  treat  white  men 
ns  well  as  it  does  the  Indian. 

Whatever  the  future  may  develop,  however,  be  this 
remembered  to  the  lasting  honor  of  Prohibition,  that 
fifty  thousand  men  racing  into  the  wilderness,  with  fierce 
contentions  for  title  to  lands,  with  not  a  magistrate  among 
them,  were  able  to  settle  all  without  bloodshed  or  life 
lost,  because  they  had  not  a  saloon. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


THE  LABORING  MEN. 


"The  labor  problem  is,  after  all,  only  the  people's  problem." — 
J.  Lloyd  Thomas,  in  "  Liquor's  War  on  Labor's  Rights." 

* '  The  use  of  liquor  and  its  influences  have  done  more  to  darken 
labor's  homes,  dwarf  its  energies,  and  chain  it  hand  and  foot  to  the 
wheels  of  corporate  oppression  than  all  other  influences  combined." 
— R.  F.  T\-evellick,  President  of  National  Labor  Union  and  Eight  Hour 
League." 

"  When  confidence  is  general,  and  there  is  a  good  prospect  that 
business  will  run  smoothly  and  profitably,  manufacturers  begin  to 
enlarge  operations,  and  employers  of  every  kind  want  more  h'elp,  and 
they  have  to  bid  up  to  get  it  ;  that  would  be  a  natural  rise.  Such 
would  have  been  the  case  at  the  present  time,  without  doubt,  had 
quiet  prevailed  ;  but  strikes,  turbulence,  and  boycotts  have  destroyed 
confidence,  and  now  a  very  dull  period  seems  certain.  Another  illus- 
tration o(  •  killing  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg.'  Apparent 
victories  by  either  capital  or  labor,  when  guined  by  artificial  press 
ure,  will  not  be  permanent." — ''Common  Sense  on  Libor,"  by  Cupples, 
Uplawn  &  Co. 

The  best  definition  of  republican  government  ever 
given  was  that  of  Lincoln,  in  his  immortal  speech  at 
Gettysburg,  **  Government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people." 

The  laboring  men,  the  working  classes,  form  the  vast 
majority  of  every  people.  Their  interest  is  the  interest 
of  us  all. 

Every  statesman,  every  theologian,  every  republican, 
every  patriot,  must  find  the  welfare  of  the  laboring  classes 
a  matter  of  absorbing  interest  and  of  transcendent  im- 


TllK    LABORING    MKN.  321 

portanco.  What  does  the  liquor  traffic  do  for  them  ? 
One  answer  springs  to  every  one's  lips:  "It  brings 
them  misfortune.  It's  a  cnrse  to  them."  But  in  order 
to  deal  with  the  matter  adequately,  we  niuFt  go  some- 
what into  the  particulars  of  the  curse.  How  much  do 
our  laboring  men  spend  for  liquor  ? 

Dr.  Dorchester,  "  Liquor  Problem,"  p.  072,  estimates  </ 
the  consumers  of  liquor  in  the  United  States  at  15,000,- 
000  out  of  a  population  of  59,000,000  in  1886.  To  get 
that  number  he  counts  one-half  the  males  between  fifteen 
and  twenty-one  as  drinkers,  and  three-fourths  of  the 
male  population  over  twenty  years.  This  is  surely  too 
large  an  estimate.  If  true,  it  would  make  "  The  Liquor 
Problem"  discouraging,  not  to  say  desperate.  With 
this  large  allowance  for  consumers,  he  puts  a  very  mod- 
erate allowance  for  the  total  cost  of  liquors — $700,000,-  *^ 
000,  when,  according  to  Dr.  Hargreaves,  the  cost  of 
liquors  to  the  consumers  in  1883  was  $944,000,000,  from 
which  it  has  been  steadily  increasing  to  the  present  time. 

With  these  data  Dr.    Dorchester  gets  $49.34  as  the  -^ 
average  cost  to  each  laboring  man  who  drinks. 

All  who  know  the  habits  and  circumstances  of  labor- 
ing men  know  that  there  are  few  drinkers  among  them 
whose  liquor  expenses  can  be  brought  within  $50  a  year.  '^ 
A  writer  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  says  : 

•*  The  remark  was  made  in  our  presence  a  short  time  since  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  laboring  men  of  this  city  spend  from  twenty 
to  fony  cents  each  day  for  beer.  At  the  rate  of  twenty- five  centH 
each  day,  the  sum  thas  spent  in  a  year  would  be  $78.25,  making  no 
account  of  any  used  on  Sundays. " 

But  all  accounts,  whether  of  liquor  dealers,  or  of  tem- 
perance workers,  or  of  employers  of  labor,  show  that 
Sunday   is   the   heaviest   drinking   day.     This   is  what 


322  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

might  be  expected.  What  makes  the  imperiousness  of 
the  drink  habit  ?  The  depth  of  the  reaction  that  follows 
the  withdrawal  of  the  stimulus.  It  is  not  the  desire  of 
having  the  liquor,  but  the  horror  of  not  having  it. 
The  action  of  brain,  stomach,  muscle,  all  flags  for  want 
of  the  accustomed  spur. 

With  the  flagging  of  energy,  there  is  an  abnormal  sensi- 
tiveness of  nerve  that  makes  every  small  annoyance  in- 
tolerable. It  is  of  little  use  to  read,  or  talk,  or  sing  to 
the  man  in  that  condition,  or  to  provide  the  daintiest 
dishes.  It  would  take  the  grace  of  a  saint  to  make  a 
church  service  endurable,  and  the  man  who  drinks  six 
days  in  the  week  is  not  usually  a  saint.  It  is  not  rational 
to  expect  him  to  make  his  rest  day  a  day  of  torment. 
But  if  he  drinks  he  will  drink  more  than  on  another  day. 
He  has  more  time  to  drink,  and  other  men  have  more 
time  to  drink  with  him.  He  has  nothing  else  to  do. 
There  is  less  risk  if  he  takes  ''  a  drop  too  much.''  He 
will  not  mash  his  hand  under  a  trip  hammer  nor  fall 
into  a  kettle,  of  molten  iron  on  Sunday.  He  can  take 
time  to  sleep  it  off. 

If  we  allow  drinking  on  the  six  days,  we  may  be 
pretty  sure  it  will  go  on,  in  some  way,  on  the  seventh. 
The  appetite  which  is  roused  up  to  Saturday  night  is 
not  going  to  be  suddenly  balked  on  Sunday.  The  only 
way  to  make  Sunday  closing  a  real  success  is  to  begin  it 
on  Monday  morning,  and  keep  it  up  all  the  \\Qek. 

So  the  twenty-five  cents  a  day  will  be  at  least  $91.25  for 
the  year,  and  more  probably  will  be  fifty  cents  on  Sunday, 
making  the  yearly  amount  more  than  $100.  The  man 
who  spends  that  will  not  be  a  very  heavy  drinker,  either. 
Five  glasses  of  beer  a  day,  one  after  breakfast,  one  at 
**  eleven  o'clock,"  one  after  dinner,  another  after  sup- 


THE    LABORING    MEN.  323 

per,  and  one  more  somewhere  along  in  the  evening.  No 
one  will  ever  see  him  drunk,  and  he  will  pride  himself 
on  his  self-control  and  self-denial.  But  his  hundred  dol- 
lars will  be  gone  all  the  same.  This  is  the  moderate 
drinker's  outlay. 

E.  E.  Hale  gives  in  the  Chatauquan  of  May,  1886, 
the  following  estimate  : 

"On  an  average  in  Massachusetts,  in  1883,  a  thousand  dollars  wonld 
be  cut  up  thus  : 

Groceries $295.20 

Provisions 197.60 

Fuel 43.00 

Dry  goods 20.00 

Boots,  shoes,  etc 36.30 

Clothing 103. 20 

Kent 197.40 

Sundries 107. 30 

Total $1,000.00 

Now  suppose  our  moderate  drinker  to  be  doing  better 
than  the  average  laboring  man,  and  earning  his  $1,000. 
In  that  case  he  just  about  spends  his  ''sundries"  for 
drink.  That  means  that  he  will  never  become  a  man  of 
property.  He  will  always  be  in  the  grind.  He  will 
never  own  so  much  as  a  house  and  lot.  Lord  Derby 
recently  gave  to  English  workingmen  an  impressive 
lesson  on  this  subject.  He  said  :  ''  They  would  all,  of 
course,  like  to  be  land  owners.  Estimating  the  value  of 
an  acre  of  fertile  land  at  £60,  the  price  of  a  square  yard 
of  land  would  be  about  threepence."  ''I  wonder," 
said  Lord  Derby,  '*  how  many  w^orkingmen  consider 
that  when  they  order  threepenny  worth  of  beer  or 
spirits  they  are  swallowing  down  a  square  yard  of  good 
agricultural  land  ?" 


324  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

That  for  land  at  $300  an  acre.  In  this  country,  where 
choice  land  can  be  bought  at  from  $10  to  $50,  the 
amount  would  be  much  greater.  At  $16  an  acre — for 
which  many  good  Western  farms  are  now  selling — a  man 
would  swallow  just  one  square  rod  of  fertile  land  with 
every  ten-cent  drink.  Or,  to  turn  the  matter  another 
way,  the  country  is  full  of  pretty  villages  where  $200 
to  $500  will  buy  a  nice  lot.  For  the  $100  drink  money 
which  the  man  may  save  the  next  year  after  his  lot  is 
paid  for,  a  building  association  will  put  up  a  house  for 
him  on  the  instalment  plan.  Then  he  at  once  saves  his 
rent,  $197.40,  and  can  apply  that  on  payment  for  his 
house,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  it  will  be  his  own. 
This  thousands  of  mechanics  actually  do  in  the  suburbs 
of  our  manufacturing  towns.  But  a  workingman  cannot 
drink  and  do  it. 

P.  A.  Burdick,  the  gifted  lecturer,  tells  the  following 
interesting  story  : 

While  engaged  in  a  temperance  campaign  in  the  town 
of  B — ,  I  called  into  a  wagon  shop  to  see  a  man  who 
had  signed  the  pledge,  and  was  introduced  by  him  to  one 
of  the  wood  workers.  He  was  a  moderate  drinker. 
During  the  conversation  he  said  :  **  1  would  like  to 
know  how  it  is  that  Mr.  D.  has  paid  for  a  home  worth 
$1,200,  has  sent  his  three  children  to  school  for  four 
years,  and  has  a  $1,000  United  States  bond.  We  have 
worked  here  together  in  this  shop  for  fifteen  years.  He 
has  received  only  $2  per  day  and  I  $2.50.  I  can't  un- 
derstand how  he  has  a  home  and  $1,000  at  interest  and 
I  have  neither." 

**  Don't  you  save  anything  of  your  wages  ?" 

**  No  ;  sometimes  at  the  end  of  the  year  I  am  $35 
ahead,  and  sometimes  the  same  amount  in  deV>t.''' 


THE   LABORING   MEN.  835 

**  Have  you  any  children  ?" 

**No." 

''  Do  you  drink  ?" 

**  Not  mucli  ;  only  beer,  and  I  buy  that  by  the  quart, 
so  I  get  it  cheaper  than  by  tlie  glass. " 

"  How  much  do  you  use  a  day  ?" 

"  You  see  that  pail  ?  Well,  I  get  that  full  twice  each 
day,  and  it  costs  me  twenty- five  cents  a  pail.  It  don't 
amount  to  much." 

''  Do  you  get  your  pail  filled  on  Sunday  ?" 

*'  Yes,  just  the  same  as  week  days." 

**  Now,  if  you  will  multiply  305,  the  immber  of  days 
in  a  year,  by  fifty  cents,  you  will  see  that  it  does  amount 
to  something.     It  amounts  to  $182.50." 

*'  Well,  that  is  so.  I  never  reckoned  it  up  be- 
fore." 

"  Do  you  use  tobacco  ?" 

"  Yes,  smoke  and  chew  both.  I  get  my  box  filled 
every  morning,  which  costs  five  cents,  and  smoke  three 
five-cent  cigars  a  day.  I  wonder  how  much  that  amounts 
to?" 

'*  We  can  soon  tell.  It  is  365  multiplied  by  20,  the 
amount  spent  each  day,  and  it  amounts  to  $73  a  year." 

''  Then  both  amount  to  $255  ?" 

**  Yes,  sir,  you  are  correct.  Is  there  any  other  habit 
you  indulge  V* 

*^  I  don't  know  whether  you  would  call  it  a  habit,  but 
I  never  work  on  Saturday.     I  take  that  as  a  holiday." 

'*  How  do  you  celebrate  your  holiday  ?" 

*^  Well,  I  might  just  as  well  make  a  clean  breast  of 
the  whole  matter  :  I  generally  sit  in  the  bar-rooms  ; 
play  now  and  then  a  game  of  *  Pedro  '  for  the  beer  to 
*  amuse  the  boys. '  ' ' 


326  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

^^  How  much  do  you  think  'amusing  the  boys  '  costs 
you  every  Saturday  ?" 

'^  Oh,  half  a  dollar  I  guess  would  cover  it." 

**  Did  you  know  it  cost  you  $3  each  Saturday  instead 
of  fifty  cents  ?" 

^'  No,  I  can't  see  it  so." 

**  Let  me  show  you.  If  you  should  work  every  Satur- 
day you  would  earn  $2.50  ;  you  would  have  this  amount 
Saturday  night  in  your  pocket.  Now  if  you  don't  work 
you  are  short  $2.50.  Not  only  that,  but  the  ilfty  cents 
you  spend  to  '  amuse  the  boys  '  coming  out  of  Friday's 
wages.     Do  you  see  it  ? 

''  Now  we  will  sum  up  the  whole  business  : 

For  beer,  one  year $182.50 

For  tobacco    "        73.00 

For  lost  time  "       131.00 

For  '  amusing  the  boys,'  one  year. 26.00 

Total $412. 50 

**  If  you  had  saved  this  sum  every  year  and  put  it  in 
a  savings  bank  at  six  per  cent,  interest,  how  much  would 
you  have  now,  do  you  suppose  ?" 

*'  I  have  no  idea  ;  I  can  now  see  why  Mr.  D.  has  laid 
up  money,  for  he  neither  drinks,  uses  tobacco,  nor  plays 
cards.  He  works  every  day.  Will  you  figure  it  out, 
Burdick  ?  I  am  anxious  to  know  just  how  big  a  fool  I 
have  been." 

I  had  done  all  the  figuring  on  a  pine  board  in  the 
shop.  lie  stood  looking  over  my  shoulder  all  the  time, 
muttering  to  himself.  The  amount  astonished  him.  li 
amounted  to  $9,676.07 — enough  to  astonish  any  man. 
He  said,  ''  Bring  out  your  pledge,  put  it  all  in,  liquor, 
tobacco,  and  c^rds  !     I  want  the  whole  or  none.     Almost 


THE   LABORING    MEN.  827 

$10,000  I  have  squandered,  and  never  dreamed  1  was  the 
only  one  to  blame." 

He  had  the  pine  board  framed  and  hung  up  over  his 
work  bench.  He  shows  it  to  every  one  who  comes  in, 
and  asks  them,  '*  How  is  it  with  you  V 

There  are  thousands  of  men  who  are  thoughtless  and 
careless  in  regard  to  their  interest,  and  then  curse  '*ill 
luck,"    '*  fate,"   etc.,    where  no  one   is   blameable  but 

themselves. 

« 

What  the  actual  cost  of  drink  is  to  men  who  are  not 
*' moderate"  may  be  seen  by  the  following  estimate 
from  the  New  York  World  of  February  24th,  1890, 
giving  the  expense  of  what  it  calls  a  "  jag"  on  Washing- 
ton's Birthday  ; 

"  Every  hotel  bar,  every  club,  every  saloon  was  filled  all  day  with 
those  who  came  to  moisten  their  claj'  and  were  in  no  hurry  to  quit 
such  pleasant  work.  Let  us  look  at  the  cost  of  a  modest  Wall  Street 
man's  two- day  celebration  : 

Washington's  bibthday. 

Wine  at  luncheon  $1  75 

Wine  at  dinner 5  00 

Cordials 50 

Nips,   bracers,   cocktails,   refreshers,   occasional 

moisteners  and  sundries  before  dinner 7  00 

Things  to  drink  before  bedtime 15  00 

SUNDAY. 

Bs  and  Ss 1  00 

Revivers,    headache-chasers,    antipyretics,    fog- 
killers,  and  brain-dusters 3  25 

Wine  at  meals 3  00 

Sober  second  thought  before  bedtime 75 

Total $37  25 

"  These  figures  are  for  only  one  man's  drinking.  Wall  Street  men 
pay  more  for  their  jags  than  club  men.  A  clerk  on  say  $8  a  week 
would  pay  for  his  two  days'  jag  about  this  way  : 


328  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

Washington's  bibthday. 
Treating,  five  rounds,  say  five  men  each  time $2  75 

SUNDAY. 

Working  the  growler 50 


Total $3  25 

"  The  poor  mechanio  who  has  a  large  family  to  support  and  feels 
the  necessity  of  cheering  up  a  bit  in  honor  of  G.  W,,  chases  the 
duck,  hunts  the  fox,  flies  the  pigeon,  and  works  the  growler  at 
intervals  during  Saturday  and  Sunday.  It  cost*  ten  cents  to  fill  the 
can,  and  it  makes  probably  ten  trips  on  Saturday  and  six  on  Sunday, 
so  his  jag  costs  only  $1.60  for  two  days.  Poor  men  can't  aflEord  cock- 
tails next  morning.  Possibly  the  broker  and  the  club  man  add  to 
the  cost  of  their  two  days'  moisture  by  three  brandies  and  sodas  at 
$1.50  this  morning.  At  all  events,  the  figures  given  above  are 
modest  and  cheap  for  a  two  divys*  jag." 

That  $1.60  from  the  ^' poor  mechanic's"  meagre 
wages  means  untold  misery  to  the  **  large  family"  sore- 
ly needing  every  cent. 

Laboring  men  who  do  not  drink  should  know  that 
every  drinking  man  cheapens  the  labor  of  all  other  men. 
In  the  intervals  of  his  sprees  he  can  do  for  many  years 
almost  as  good  work  as  a  sober  man.  No  employer, 
liowever,  really  wants  him,  because  '*  there  is  no  depen- 
dence to  be  placed  on  him."  Tie  has  one  obvious  re- 
source. He  must  live  ;  something  is  better  than  noth- 
ing ;  he  will  sell  his  labor  for  what  he  can  get— perhaps 
two-thirds,  perhaps  half  what  would  otherwise  be  its 
market  price.  When  there  are  many  such  men  afloat  in 
the  community,  they  bring  down  the  whole  price  of 
labor  in  that  community.  The  sober  man  asks  for  rea- 
sonable wages.  The  employer  answers,  '*  I  can  get 
plenty  of  men  to  do  the  work  for  half  that  money." 
Toll    him    they    will    not    be   steady,    and    he   answers, 


THE    I.AHOUINti     MKN.  'A^i^ 

"  "When  they  fall  out,  there  are  plenty  more  to  step  in." 
So  the  sober  inan,  by  no  fault  of  his  own,  finds  his 
wages  cut  down  nearly,  if  not  quite,  to  the  drinker's 
level.  His  chief  advantage  is  that  he  spends  what  he 
does  get  better.  But  he  does  not  get  what  ho  would  if 
this  low-priced  labor  were  out  of  the  market.  The 
drinker,  with  his  recklessness  of  family  and  the  future, 
and  his  spending  to  the  last  cent,  is  a  slave.  He  nmst 
take  what  he  can  get,  and  with  such  treatment  as  hap- 
pens to  come  along  with  it.  The  market  is  full  of  this 
slave  labor,  and  sober  workmen  suffer  in  consequence,  as 
free  labor  always  suffers  where  shive  labor  prevails. 

From  the  moment  a  man  owns  a  house  and  lot  or  has 
money  in  the  savings-bank  he  becomes  more  than  a 
mere  laborer  ;  he  is  a  capitalist.  He  experiences  the 
comfort  of  poor  Richard's  quaint  saying  :  '*  Now  that 
I  have  a  cow  and  pig  every  one  bids  me  good -morrow.'' 
It  is  not  only  better  for  him  but  for  the  country.  The 
man  who  owns  something  has  a  stake  in  the  welfare  of 
society  and  the  maintenance  of  public  order. 

A  reporter  for  the  Cleveland  Leader  spent  a  day  inter- 
viewing Socialist  agitators.  He  found  that  one  of  their 
leaders  had  given  up  his  connection  with  them  and  had 
not  attended  their  meetings  for  over  two  months. 
*' Why  did  you  leave  them?"  was  asked  of  him. 
"  Well,  it  cost  me  too  much  money,  and  I  couldn't 
afford  it.  I  had  to  associate  with  our  members  and  look 
after  them.  They  usually  stay  in  saloons,  and  every 
time  1  entered  one  it  cost  me  ten  cents  or  a  quarter. 
The  men  frequent  saloons  because  they  have  no  place 
eke  to  go.  They  go  there  and  talk  over  their  griev- 
ances." Note  the  fact,  which  is  universal  in  Chicago 
and  New  York  as  well,  that  the  Communists  and  An- 


330  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

archists  ^'  usually  stay  in  saloons  ;"  that  every  man  who 
enters  is  expected  to  drink  at  a  cost  of  '*  from  ten  cents 
to  a  quarter ;"  that  **  they  go  there  and  talk  over  their 
grievances' '  while  swallowing  down,  at  the  rate  of  a 
square  rod  for  every  drink,  the  means  which  might  make 
every  one  of  them  a  capitalist,  with  no  special  *'  griev- 
ances" to  talk  about.  So  far  from  its  being  the  fact 
that  ^*  they  go  there  (to  the  saloons)  because  they  have 
nowhere  else  to  go,"  the  real  fact  is,  that  they  have 
nowhere  else  to  go  because  they  go  there.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  where  this  man,  who  ''  could  not  afford  "  to 
be  an  Anarchist,  lived. 

*'  He  led  the  way  to  the  sitting-room,  a  cosey,  well- 
furnished  apartment,  and  invited  the  reporter  to  a  seat 
in  an  easy-chair  beside  a  burnished  base-burner.  The 
reporter  was  somewhat  surprised  to  find  a  Socialist  in 
such  pleasant  environments.  The  wife  was  entertaining 
a  group  of  young  friends  in  an  adjoining  room,  and 
several  bright-faced  little  children  were  playing  about 
the  premises." 

Ah,  yes.  He  *' couldn't  afford  it."  But  if  he  had 
just  kept  on  affording  it,  he  would  have  swallowed  his 
base-burner  and  easy-chair  and  the  rest  of  the  pretty 
things.  His  wife  and  children  would  have  been  *'  bright- 
faced'  '  no  longer.  They  would  have  moved  into  some 
mean  dwelling,  and  he  would  have  gone  to  the  saloon 
**  because  he  had  nowhere  else  to  go,"  and  *'  discussed 
his  grievances,"  because  they  would  have  been  all  he  had 
left. 

Or  look  at  it  in  another  way.  The  man  who  spends 
all  his  earnings  is  constantly  on  the  verge  of  pauperism. 
Let  us  not  be  liard  on  those  who  have  to  do  it— the  min- 
ister who  must  keep  up  the  state  of  a  professional  man 


THE   LABORIKQ    HEN.  331 

on  the  pay  of  a  day  laborer,  the  young  clerk  whose  last 
cent  is  needed  to  support  a  widowed  mother  and  younger 
children.  Such  cases  are  occasion  for  sympathy  and  re- 
gret. But  the  voluntary  wiisting  of  a  surplus  is  matter 
for  downriofht  condemnation. 

If  such  a  man  jams  his  hand,  or  sprains  his  ankle,  or 
has  an  attack  of  sickness,  at  once  he  begins  to  run  in 
debt.  If  he  has  been  given  to  other  extravagances,  he 
may  retrench,  pay  his  debts,  and  get  square  with  society 
again.  But  if  his  extravagance  has  been  drink,  in  that 
he  will  never  retrench  ;  but  the  more  ^*  blue"  his  circum- 
stances, the  darker  his  prospects,  the  more  he  will  drink, 
as  long  as  there  is  anything  to  buy  the  drink  with.-  So,  y 
on  the  first  inroad  of  misfortune  the  drinking  man  goes 
down  a  step  in  the  ladder  over  which  there  is  no  return. 
When  liquor  once  downs  a  man  it  always  iighteiia  its 
(jrijp. 

The  use  of  his  surplus  for  drink  is  one  of  the  most  (/ 
supremely  selfish  things  a  man  can  do.  It  is  to  deny 
his  family  everything  but  bare  subsistence.  No  self- 
reapectful  woman  would  marry  him  if  he  were  to  say  at 
the  outeet  :  '^  I  will  furnish  you  lodging,  food,  clothing, 
and  fire,  and  I  expect  to  drink  up  the  rest. "  Yet  that 
is  exactly  the  status  to  which  the  wife  of  many  a  mod- 
erate drinker  finds  herself  reduced,  while  no  one  thinks 
of  the  family  as  destitute  or  suffering,  or  of  the  husband 
as  intemperate. 

Every  last  atom  of  margin  goes  to  the  saloon.  The*^^ 
man  is  cross  at  being  a^ed  for  an  extra  penny  for  home, 
because  he  needs  it  all  for  the  drinks  which  he  don't 
know  how  to  live  without.  The  very  man  who  has  the 
reputation — in  the  saloon — of  "  such  a  generous  fellow," 
**  so  good-hearted,"  will  be  snippish  and  savage  if  his  wife 


332  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

asks  him  for  twenty-tive  cents,  because  his  '^  good  heart" 
has  led  him  to  spend  that  on  himself  and  '^  the  good 
fellows"  who  drink  with  him.  Then  if  she  isn't  cheer- 
ful, he  is  pitied — "such  a  good  fellow,"  and  "  such  a 
gloomy,  melancholy  wife."  Let  him  take  his  hundred 
dollars  of  drink-money  and  spend  it  in  being  "  a  good 
fellow"  to  her  for  a  spell,  and  see  whether  she'll  be 
gloomy.  He  can  get  as  bright  a  smile  as  ever  he  had  in 
the  days  of  their  courtship,  if  he  thinks  it  worth  more 
than  to  be  slapped  on  the  back  by  a  coarse  man  whose 
beer  he  has  just  paid  for. 

Do  you  say  this  is  moonshine  ?  Well,  lovers  are  fond 
of  moonshine,  and  in  happy  homes  they  never  quite  out- 
grow it.  Try  a  little  moonshine.  Bring  all  your  week's 
wages  home,  and  then  ask  your  wife  to  walk  down  street 
with  you  and  buy  what  she  most  wants,  and  as  you  catch 
glimpses  of  her  face  in  light  and  shadow  on  the  way,  see 
if  moonshine  isn't  beautiful. 

In  my  own  experience  of  reform  work,  where  some 
hundreds  of  men  have  been  induced  to  sign  the  pledge 
and  reform — for  a  while,  at  least — the  change  in  the 
men  was  not  more  striking  than  the  brightness,  cheer, 
and  youthfulness  that  dawned  upon  the  faces  of  mothers 
and  sisters,  daughters  and  wives. 

A  young  father,  just  as  he  was  going  out  in  the  even- 
ing, was  met  by  his  little  daughter,  begging,  "  Oh  papa, 
won't  you  buy  me  one  of  those  pretty  hoops  for  half  a 
dollar  ?  All  the  girls  have  them,  and  they  are  so  nice." 
*'  Half  a  dollar  for  a  hoop  I"  he  answered.  *'  You  must 
think  I'm  made  of  money.  No,  indeed  ;  1  can't  afford 
it." 

The  little  one  began  to  cry,  "  Oh  papa,  if  you  only 
could  !     1  want  it  bo  much,  and  all  the  girls  have  them." 


*'  Well,  I  can't  help  that.  Fve  no  money  for  such 
things.  Get  a  hoop  off  that  old  barrel  in  the  back  yard. 
That  will  bo  just  as  good." 

And  he  lit  a  cigar  and  walked  off  down  street.  Ho 
went  into  a  nice  respectable  billiard-room,  with  saloon 
attachment,  of  course.  A  number  of  pleasant  acquaint- 
ances were  there.  He  played  several  games,  with  the 
odds  rather  against  him,  and  had  the  liquor  and  cigars 
to  pay  for,  amounting  to  a  dollar  and  a  quarter.  He 
paid  it  with  smiling  good-nature,  'Mike  a  man,"  and 
walked  back  home  in  the  pleasant  summer  evening. 
Near  his  home  he  overtook  a  crying  child.  It  was  his 
little  Grace  sideling  against  the  wall.  The  other  children 
had  all  made  fun  of  her  '*  old  hoop,"  and  she  was  steal- 
ing home  broken-hearted,  trying  to  hide  it  from  observa-' 
tion.  The  man  had  not  drank  enough  to  deaden  his 
finer  feelings.  It  came  to  him  with  a  sharp  pang  that 
he  had  spent  on  his  own  pleasure  more  than  twice  the 
money  he  had  just  denied  his  loved  little  daughter,  and 
sent  her  out  disappointed  to  be  sneered  at,  crushed  and 
ostracized  in  her  little  world.  He  caught  her  up  in  his 
arms,  flung  the  old  barrel  hoop  to  the  middle  of  the 
street.  *'  It's  not  too  late  yet,"  he  said  ;  *'  come  and 
show  me  where  they  keep  those  hoops,  and  yon  shall 
have  the  nicest  one  there  is  in  the  store." 

*'  Oh  papa,  can  you  ?  Do  you  have  the  money  now  ?" 
^\  Yes,"  he  said  ;  "  I  have  the  money  now." 
The  little  one  went  to  bed  happy,  but  it  was  long  be- 
fore the  father  slept.  That  tear-stained  face  and  shrink- 
ing figure  kept  coming  before  him,  and  he  saw  how  in 
a  thousand  ways  his  *'  I  can't  afford  it"  to  his  dear  ones 
had  simply  meant  '*  I  want  it  for  my  own  self-indul- 
gence."    The  sharp  regret  made  him  a  temperance  man. 


'J34  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITIOX. 

Since  writing  the  above,  we  have  come  upon  the  fol- 
lowing incident,  which  the  Philadelphia  Methodist 
vouches  for  as  *'  a  true  story." 

*^  Papa,  will  you  please  give  me  lifty  cents  for  my 
spring  hat  \     'Most  all  the  academy  girls  have  theirs." 

**  No,  May  ;  I  can't  spare  the  money." 

The  above  request  was  persuasively  made  by  a  sixteen- 
year-old  maiden  as  she  was  preparing  for  school  one  fine 
spring  morning.  The  refusal  came  from  the  parent  in 
a  curt,  indifferent  tone.  The  disappointed  girl  went  to 
school.  The  father  started  for  his  place  of  business. 
On  his  way  thither  he  met  a  friend,  and,  being  hail  fel- 
low well  met,  he  invited  him  into  Mac's  for  a  drink. 
As  usual,  there  were  others  there,  and  the  man  that  could 
jiot  spare  his  daughter  fifty  cents  for  a  hat  treated  the 
crowd. 

When  about  to  leave  he  laid  a  half-dollar  on  the  coun- 
ter, which  just  paid  for  the  drinks. 

Just  then  the  saloon-keeper's  daughter  entered,  and 
going  behind  the  bar,  said  :  ^*  Papa,  I  want  fifty  cents 
for  my  spring  hat." 

*' All  right,"  said  the  dealer,  and  taking  the  half- 
dollar  from  the  counter,  he  handed  it  over  to  the  girl, 
who  departed  smiling. 

May's  father  seemed  dazed,  walked  out  alone,  and 
said  to  himself  :  *^  I  had  to  bring  my  fifty  cents  here  for 
the  rumseller's  daughter  to  buy  a  hat  with,  after  refusing 
it  to  my  own  daughter.     I'll  never  drink  another  drop." 

And  he  kept  his  pledge. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  a  man  who  goes  on  hardening 
himself  in  this  selfishness  for  years,  denying  his  family 
all  but  bare  subsistence  for  his  own  gratification,  be- 
comes at  length  capable   of   denying  them  even  that, 


THE    LABOKINU    MEX.  XiFt 

when  his  drinking  habits  have  reduced  his  income,  and 
the  drink  has  become  a  mightier  need. 

Tiiis  using  the  surplus  for  drink  means  tliat  the  wife 
and  mother  shall  have  no  domestic  help.  Why,  that 
hundred  dollars  would  pay  the  wages  of  a  girl  at  $2 
a  week,  and  save  many  a  burdened  woman  from  a 
broken  constitution  and  perhaps  from  an  early  grave. 
If  she  could  even  hire  an  occasional  day's  work.  But 
no,  she  must  drag  herself  out  weak  and  faint  to  do  the 
family  washing,  while  the  husband  genially  swallows  in 
five  drinks  of  whiskey  the  money  that  would  pay  a  strong 
woman  for  doing  it.  Fine,  generous,  good-hearted 
fellow  ! 

The  drink-money  of  the  nation  would  employ — in  the  ^ 
proportion  in  which  other  money  is  spent — ninety-four 
thousand  domestic  servants  and  eleven  thousand  laun- 
dresses. Pretty  hard  for  the  mother  who  has  been  up 
all  night  with  a  sick  baby,  and  then  has  to  wash  dishes, 
cook,  sweep,  dust,  and  mend  all  day,  taking  care  of  the 
baby  and  feeding  it  from  her  own  breast  besides.  How 
some  of  that  drink-money  would  lighten  her  burden  I. 

Then  those  hundred  thousand  women  who  should  bo 
employed  in  domestic  work  must  crowd  into  the  labor 
market  among  the  men,  bringing  down  wages  by  the 
irresistible  laws  of  trade — a  heavy  economic  loss.  If  the 
matrons  of  America  were  able  to  employ  all  the  domestic 
help  they  really  need,  that  would  go  far  to  solve  the 
problem  of  the  starvation  wages  of  women  workers. 

To  spend  all  ho  earns  as  fast  as  he  earns  it  makes  the 
laboring  man  perfectly  helpless  in  a  strike.  The  firsfc 
day  that  work  stops  destitution  begins.  Ten  thousand 
men  are  ten  thousand  times  worse  off  than  one.  If  it 
was  only  the  one,  the  ten  thousand  might  scrimp  a  trifle 


336  ECOXOMirs    OV    PKOinBITTOX. 

and  support  him.  But  when  they  all  stop,  they  all 
begin  to  go  down  at  once.  The  more  men  there  are  on 
a  sinking  ship  the  sooner  it  will  go  to  tlie  bottom. 
Hence,  Mr.  Powderly  says  :  ^'  Strong  drink  is  the  great- 
est enemy  the  laboring  man  has.  The  saloon  and  not 
capital  has  crushed  every  labor  organization  that  has 
gone  down  heretofore,  and  there  is  no  hope  for  the 
laboring  man  who  persists  in  frequenting  drinking 
places."  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  most  successful  strike 
iu  many  years  is  that  of  the  dock  laborers  of  London, 
whose  leader,  John  Burns,  is  an  ardent  temperance  man, 
and  used  all  his  powerful  influence  to  keep  the  working- 
men  temperate.  The  strike  was  disgraced  by  no  act  of 
violence,  and  the  victory  was  absolute.  They  gained  all 
they  asked. 

If  all  this  is  true  of  the  moderate  drinker  on  handsome 
wages,  what  must  be  the  case  of  the  host  who  are  not 
moderate  and  upon  scanty  wages  ? 

They  are  the  great  majority.  From  them  the  liquor 
traffic  derives  its  chief  j^rofits.  To  sustain  its  invested 
capital,  its  vast  establishments,  and  its  present  income, 
the  liquor  traffic  needs  drunkards  ;  not,  indeed,  those 
who  have  got  where  they  can't  earn,  but  those  who  can 
still  work  and  earn,  though  they  can  neither  drink  mod- 
erately nor  quit  drinking.  These  are  to  the  liquor  traffic 
what  cows  are  to  the  dairyman.  The  cows  work  all  day 
eating  the  grass  which  the  dairyman  can't  eat,  and 
wouldn't  if  he  could.  Then  they  come  in  at  night  and 
deliver  him  the  milk.  These  mechanics  and  laborers 
work  all  day,  and  then  come  and  deliver  the  money  to 
the  saloon-keeper,  who  very  likely  couldn't  do  their 
work  if  he  would,  and  certainly  wouldn't  if  he  could. 
It's  easier  to  have  them  work  and  he  get  the  money. 


THE    LABORING    MEN.  337 

He  has  such  a  mastery  over  them  as  no  Legree  ever  had 
over  his  slaves.  lie  needs  no  bloodhounds  to  keep  them 
from  nmning  away. 

They  see  that  ho  is  growing  rich  and  tliey  are  growing 
poor,  and  they  know  it  is  their  money  that  is  doing  it, 
but  they  bring  it  to  him  faithfully  still.  While  each  of 
them  gets  for  hard  work  the  wages  of  one  man,  the 
saloon-keeper  without  any  work  gets  the  wages  of  a 
hundred  men.  But  there  is  no  rebellion.  It  never  oc- 
curs to  one  of  them  to  say,  *'  I'll  quit  feeding  this  lazy 
scoundrel  and  keep  my  own  money."  No,  indeed. 
The  bronzed  toiler  sits  down  in  the  den  of  his  lily- 
handed,  iron-hearted  master,  hands  over  to  him  his  wife's 
dinner,  and  his  children's  shoes,  and  the  very  rent  money, 
which  alone  stands  between  him  and  the  street,  and 
talks  grandly  about  his  '*  personal  liberty."  And  the 
bar-keeper  smiles  upon  him.  No  wonder  !  Such  an 
idea  of  *^  liberty"  will  be  ranked  in  history  as  one  of  the 
most  amazing  delusions  that  ever  gained  power  over  the 
human  ra'ce. 

Mr.  Powderly,  in  a  speech  before  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  said  : 

' '  The  temperance  qnestion  is  an  important  one,  and  I  HometimeH 
think  it  is  the  main  issue.  The  largo  number  of  applications  during 
the  past  year  to  grant  dispensations  to  allow  the  initiation  of  rum- 
sellers  was  alarming.  I  have  persistently  refused  them,  and  will  en- 
join my  successor,  if  he  values  the  future  success  of  the  order,  to 
shnt  the  door  with  triple  bars  against  the  admission  of  the  liquor 
dealer.  His  path  and  that  of  the  honest,  industrious  workingman 
lie  in  opposite  directions.  The  rumseller  who  seeks  admission  into 
a  labor  society  does  so  with  the  object  that  he  may  entice  its  mem- 
bers into  his  saloon  after  the  meetings  close.  No  qnestion  of  interest 
to  labor  has  ever  been  satisfactorily  settled  over  a  bar  in  a  mm  hole. 
No  labor  society  ever  admitted  a  rnmseller  that  did  not  die  a  dmnk- 
jird's  death.     No  workingman  ever  drank  a  glass  of  rnm  who  did  not 


/ 


338  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

rob  his  family  of  the  price  of  it,  and  in  so  doing  committed  a  double 
crime,  murder  and  theft.  He  murders  the  intellect  with  which  the 
Maker  hath  endowed  him.  He  steals  from  his  family  the  means  of 
sustenance  he  has  earned  for  them.  Turn  to  the  annals  of  every 
dead  labor  society,  and  you  will  see  whole  pages  blurred  and  de- 
stroyed by  the  accursed  footprints  of  rum.  Scan  the  records  of  a 
meeting  at  which  a  disturbance  took  place,  and  you  will  hear  echoing 
through  the  hall  the  maudlin,  fiendish  grunt  of  the  brute  who  dis- 
turbed the  harmony  of  the  meeting." 

In  a  circular  since  issued  he  uses  these  emphatic 
words  : 

♦*  To  our  drinking  members  I  extend  the  hand  of  kindness.  I  hate 
the  uses  to  which  rum  has  been  put,  but  it  is  my  duty  to  reach  down 
and  lift  up  the  man  who  has  fallen  a  victim  to  the  use  of  liquor.  If 
there  is  such  a  man  within  the  sound  of  the  secretary's  voice  when 
this  is  read,  I  ask  him  to  stand  erect  on  the  floor  of  his  Assembly, 
raise  his  hand  to  Heaven,  and  repeat  with  me  these  words  :  *  I  am  a 
Knight  of  Labor.  I  believe  that  every  man  should  be  free  from  the 
curse  of  slavery,  whether  the  slavery  appears  in  the  shape  of  mo- 
nopoly, usury,  or  intemperance.  The  firmest  link  in  the  chain  of 
oppression  is  the  one  I  forge  when  I  drown  manhood  and  reason  in 
drink.  No  man  can  rob  me  of  the  brain  my  God  has  given  me  un- 
less I  am  a  party  to  the  theft.  If  I  drink  to  drown  grief,  I  bring 
grief  to  wife,  child,  and  sorrowing  friends.  I  add  not  one  iota  to 
the  sum  of  human  happiness  when  I  invite  oblivion  over  the  rim  of  a 
glass.  If  one  moment's  forgetfulness  or  inattention  to  duty  while 
drunk  brings  defeat  to  the  least  of  labor's  plans,  a  life-time  of 
attention  to  duty  alone  can  repair  the  loss.  I  promise  never  again 
to  put  myself  in  such  a  position.  *  If  every  member  of  the  Knights 
of  Labor  would  only  pass  a  resolution  to  boycott  strong  drink  so  far 
as  he  is  concerned  for  five  years,  and  would  pledge  his  word  to  study 
the  labor  question  from  its  different  standpoints,  we  would  then 
have  an  invincible  host  arrayed  on  the  side  of  justice." 

To  his  words,  we  may  add  those  of  another  leader  of 
workingraen,  P.  M.  Arthur,  Chief  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers,  who  says  : 

"If  I  could,  I  would  inaugurate  a  strike  which  would  drive  tUe 
liquor  trafRc  from  the  face  of  the  earth." 


CHAPTER  XX. 


THE    BEST    CUSTOMERS. 


•«  There  vras  every  element  of  trade  prosperity  present  except  the 
buying  element,  but,  unfortunately,  that  element,  instead  of  apply- 
ing itself  to  the  purchase  of  the  goods  that  filled  the  warehouses, 
wasted  its  resources  at  the  public-house  ;  for  instance,  £24  per  head 
(about  $120)  were  spent  yearly  in  drink,  and  but  8s.  (about  $2)  on 
cotton  goods,  and  so  the  people  were  in  poverty  and  rags,  and  manu- 
facturers could  find  no  market  for  their  goods." — London  Economist, 
1876. 

If  one  man  absorbs  the  wages  of  one  hundred  men, 
he  does  not  give  back  to  society  their  purchasing  power. 
He  can  only  wear  one  pair  of  shoes  and  one  suit  of 
clothes  at  one  time.  They  must  wear  one  hundred  pairs 
and  one  hundred  suits  at  the  same  time.  He  can  only 
live  in  one  house.  They  must  have  one  hundred.  He 
can  only  eat  one  man's  rations.  They,  if  they  did  not 
spend  their  money  to  fatten  him,  would  eat  one  hundred 
times  as  much.  If  we  allow  the  military  rate  of  five 
women,  children,  and  aged  persons  to  every  able-bodied 
man,  saloon-keeper  included,  the  disparity  becomes  still 
greater.  It  is  then  500  to  5.  That  is,  there  will  be  405 
more  pei-sons  to  spend  the  wage-money  in  the  general 
market  if  none  of  it  is  spent  in  the  saloon.  It  seems 
self-evident  that  more  will  be  spent  and  more  goods 
bought. 

"  Ah,  but,"  says  some  one,  '*  the  saloon-keeper  will 
buy  a  better  quality." 


340  ECONOMICS    OF    PROIIIBITIOX. 

True,  and  just  here  is  one  of  the  most  amusing  eco- 
nomic errors  in  the  minds  of  sensible  people.  The 
present  writer  once  applied  to  a  furnishing  goods  dealer 
in  behalf  of  a  temperance  paper. 

"Why,"  said  the  proprietor,  'Miquor  men  are  my 
best  customers.  Just  before  you  came  in  a  saloon- 
keeper was  here  and  bought  four  suits  of  silk  underwear. 
I  don't  know  a  temperance  man  in  town  that  would  do 
that."  **  No,"  we  replied  ;  *'  they  don't  have  so  much 
of  other  people's  money  to  do  it  with."  But,  even  so, 
was  that  a  gain  to  trade  ? 

Let  us  say  the  saloon  man  paid  $16  a  suit  for  his  silk 
underwear.  There  was  $64.  Suppose  one  hundred  of 
his  customers  had  kept  their  money  and  bought  what 
they  needed.  They  wouldn't  have  bought  silk,  but  red 
flannel  at  $2  for  shirt  and  drawers,  $4  for  two  suits. 
That  is  not  much.  John  Doe  would  not  get  much 
genial  courtesy  from  the  store-keeper  for  a  little  matter 
like  that.  And  if  Mr.  Grossbier  came  in  to  look  at  silk 
underwear,  John  might  stand  and  fumble  over  the  pile 
of  red  shirts  till  he  was  tired. 

But,  all  the  same,  John  is  the  best  buyer,  because 
there  are  more  of  Iiim.  One  hundred  workingmen  for 
their  red  flannel  suits  will  spend  $400  against  the  saloon- 
keeper's $64  for  silk.  If  the  profit  on  the  silk  goods  is 
50  per  cent,  of  the  retail  price,  that  will  be  $32.  The 
profit  on  the  woollens  would  be  25  per  cent,  of  the 
selling  price,  or  $100  on  the  two  hundred  suits. 

That  is,  there  would  be  more  than  three  times  as  much 
profit  on  the  workingmen' s  trade  as  on  the  saloon- 
keeper's in  this  single  line.  True,  we  must  deduct 
something  for  clerk  hire,  for  it  will  take  more  clerks  to 
sell  and  handle  the  two  hundred  woollen  suits  than  the 


THS   BSST   CUSTOMERS.  341 

four  silk  ones.  But  that  means  employment  for  prom- 
ising young  men  and  prosperity  for  the  community.  So 
it  will  take  more  drayage,  more  railroad  transportation, 
etc.,  all  which  means  employment  and  work  for  some- 
body, and  it  will  take  more  than  three  hundred  pounds 
of  wool  to  make  those  two  hundred  suits,  employing 
many  more  hands  in  factory,  on  farm,  and  all  the  way 
along  the  line.  This  is  but  one  item.  Suppose  the 
same  saloon-keeper  gets  him  a  custom-made  suit  for  $35, 
and  the  workingmen  only  buy  ready-made  suits  at  $12 
each.  Still  their  purchases  amount  to  $1,200  against  his 
$35.  Even  if  he  indulges  quite  freely  in  changes  of 
raiment,  still  he  would  hardly  buy  more  than  three  suits 
to  their  one — if  they  kept  their  money  to  buy  with. 
Even  at  that  rate,  their  purchases  would  be  more  than 
ten  times  his. 

In  the  food  market  the  difference  is  still  more  strik- 
ing. Bishop  Vincent,  in  his  spicy  and  beautiful  ^'  Home 
Book,"  p.  526,  gives  the  following  incident  : 

"A  coal  miner  in  Pennsylvania  quit  work  on  a  Saturday  night, 
treated  the  boys  at  the  saloon,  went  to  the  butcher's  shop,  and  stood 
aside  while  the  saloon-keeper  bought  a  roast  for  Sunday's  dinner 
and  a  sirloin  steak  for  Monday's  breakfast.  The  miner  took  two 
pounds  of  liver.  The  following  Monday  the  miner  made  a  speech 
to  his  fellow-miners,  and  they  agreed  to  buy  no  beer  for  u  week  at 
the  saloon.  They  kept  their  word.  Next  Saturday  the  miner  went 
to  the  butcher's  shop.  The  saloon-keeper  came  in,  and  the  miner 
stood  one  side.  The  saloon-keeper  said  that,  as  businesH  had  been 
yery.  dull,  he  would  take  liver  for  his  Sunday  dinner  and  Monday 
breakfast.  The  miners  took  roasts  and  steak.  Which  is  the  better 
for  the  butcher,  the  farmer,  the  merchant  —one  roast  and  forty  livers, 
or  one  liver  and  forty  roasts  ?" 

The  wife  of  the  man  who  bought  the  silk  underwear 
will  buy  a  silk  dress  at,  say,  $30,  with  laces  and  trim- 
mings for  perhaps  ^20  more.     How  she  will  be  waited 


342  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

on  !  The  workingman's  wife — when  he  don't  drink — 
will  buy  a  simple  dress  at  twenty-five  cents  a  yard.  Her 
modest  purchase  will  be,  all  told,  about  $5. 

Her  custom  is  not  worth  much.  But  let  the  proces- 
sion in  !  One  hundred  plain  dresses— $500  against  $30. 
Still  the  working  classes  are  far  ahead. 

Now  let  us  take  Dr.  Hale's  table  and  double  all 
amounts  for  the  prosperous  saloon-keeper,  allowing  him 
to  spend  $2,000  where  $1,000  is  a  fair  average  income. 
He  will  then  spend  for 

Groceries $590.40 

Provisions 395.20 

Fuel  86.00 

Dry  goods 40.00 

Boots,  shoes,  and  slippers 72.60 

Clothing 206.40 

Rent 394.80 

Sundries 214.60 


$2,000.00 


Now  let  us  take  the  one  hundred  workingmen.  Many 
of  them  will  not  earn  $1,000  a  year.  Some  will  earn 
more.  A  good  stone-mason  will  earn  $4:  a  day.  Num- 
bers of  machinists  earn  their  $3  and  $4  a  day.  But  we 
will  average  the  one  hundred  men  at  $2  a  day  for  three 
hundred  working  days,  or  $60pfe*ch  a  year.  They  are 
quite  ordinary  people,  you  see,  in  very  moderate  circum- 
stances. But  do  you  observe,  they  will  have  $60,000  to 
spend  ?  This,  according  to  Dr.  Hale's  table,  will  be 
divided  as  follows  : 

Groceries $17,1411 

Provisions 11,866 

Fuel 2,580 

Dry  goods  1.200 


THE   BEST   CUSTOMERS.  343 

Boots,  shoes,  and  slippers. .^]^.^i-^ 2.178 

Clotliing , 6,192 

Kent 11.844 

Sundries G.438 


$60,000 


That  is,  allowing  the  saloon-keeper  to  spend  $2,000 
where  $1,1)00  is  an  average  income,  and  allowing  each 
laboring  man  to  spend  but  $600  where  $1,000  is  an  aver- 
age income,  still  one  hundred  workingmen  are  worth  to 
trade  as  much  more  than  one  prosperous  saloon-keeper, 
as  $60,000  is  more  than  $2,000.  To  the  grocer  that 
means  sales — in  round  numbers — of  $18,000,  instead  of 
$600  ;  to  the  boot  and  shoe  dealer  $2,000,  instead  of 
$75  ;  to  the  clothing  store  $6,000,  instead  of  $200  ;  to 
real  estate  owners,  rents  of  $12,000,  instead  of  $400. 
Which  is  best  for  the  business  of  that  town  and  for  every 
man  in  it  who  has  anything  to  sell  ? 

Let  us  contrast  it  in  another  table  : 


Groceries 

Provisions 

Fuel 

Dry  goods 

Boots,  shoes,  etc. 

Clothing 

Bent 

Sundries 


It  is  probably  not  in  human  nature  for  the  grocer  to 
help  feeling  a  little  more  complacency  toward  the  man 
who  buys  $600  worth  during  the  year  than  toward  the 
man  whose  purchases  amount  to  only  $175.     But  when 


100  Workingmen. 

1  Saloon-keeper. 

$17,712 

$590.40 

11.856 

395.20 

2,580 

86.00 

1,200 

40.00 

2,178 

72.60 

6,192 

206  40 

11,844 

394.80 

6,438 

214.60 

$60,000 

$2,000.00 

344  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

the  hundred  workingmen  spend  almost  $18,000,  they  are 
the  best  customers. 

The  balance  of  trade  is  in  their  hands.  On  the  eco- 
nomic basis  only,  leaving  humanity  out  of  the  question, 
the  most  important  thing  is  to  take  care  of  the  working- 
men.  If  you  want  your  town  to  prosper,  look  out  for 
the  workingmen.  See  that  they  get  their  full  pay  and 
that  nobody  cheats  them  out  of  it — that  they  are  neither 
oppressed,  degraded,  nor  discouraged. 

Fire  the  saloon-keeper  and  lose  his  $2,000  in  trade. 
If  he  offers  you  $1,000  for  a  license,  send  that  along 
with  him.  You  will  be  $3,000  out,  but  your  grand 
force  of  workingmen  with  their  $60,000  will  quickly 
make  that  good. 

*^  Oh,  oh,  oh  !"  exclaims  a  critic,  ''  you're  wild  as  a 
hawk.  Those  men  would  never  spend  their  $60,000  for 
liquor.  Why,  they  couldn't.  They  will  have  to  live 
somewhere,  eat  something,  and  have  some  kind  of  clothes 
on.  No  ordinary  saloon-keeper  gets  any  such  income  as 
that  would  allow,  either." 

Well,  all  right.     But  where  does  the  money  go  ? 

Take  any  one  of  those  men  with  his  $600  a  year,  tem- 
perate and  industrious. 

He  is  always  respectably  dressed,  suitably  to  his  work. 
You  never  think  of  pitying  him.  His  wife  and  children 
are  neatly  clad.  They  are  well  fed,  with  color  in  their 
cheeks  and  light  in  their  eyes.  His  plain  little  home  is 
comfortable.  His  pastor  or  employer  can  go  in  and  sit 
down  with  no  sense  of  wretchedness.  What  he  buys 
at  the  grocer's  or  provision  dealer's  ho  buys  as  indepen- 
dently as  a  millionaire.  They  are  glad  to  see  him  come 
in.  If  a  fellow- workman  is  hurt,  this  man  will  have  a 
spare  dollar  to  help  make  up  a  purse  for  him. 


TMK   Hi:sT  crsTOMKks.  345 

Now  let  him  tiike  to  drink,  and  in  a  little  while  tell 
me  what  has  happened.  A  slouchy,  ragged,  dirty 
laborer,  his  wife  and  children  with  faces  pinched  and 
dress  forlorn,  his  home  sqnalid.  Ilis  wife  steals  into  the 
grocery,  and  a  hard  gleam  comes  into  the  grocer's  eyes 
the  moment  he  sees  her.  She  makes  some  poor  little 
purchases,  and  the  grocer  charges  tliem  with  a  savage 
resignation,  almost  wishing  he  could  be  harder-hearted. 
The  man  shambles  into  the  meat  market,  and  though 
he  comes  first,  "  stands  aside,"  as  in  Dr.  Vincent's  story, 
to  let  the  saloon-keeper  buy,  and  then  takes  his  soup- 
bone  or  liver.  What  has  happened  ?  Where  has  the 
money  gone  ?  The  question  reminds  one  of  the  Kindu 
problem,  Where  is  the  flame  of  a  candle  after  it  is  blown 
out?  Query  about  it  as  you  will,  there  stands  the  fact 
that  for  all  practical  purposes  the  purchasing  power  of 
that  family  is  destroyed.  1  have  repeatedly  seen  this 
process  gone  through  in  less  than  three  years. 

Doubtless  much  is  spent  for  tobacco  in  the  expensive 
form  of  cigai*s  along  with  the  drink.  Much  is  gambled 
away  at  billiards  and  cards  in  the  saloon  or  in  some  ad- 
joining resort.  Much  is  to  be  charged  to  lost  labor  while 
on  sprees  or  recovering  from  them.  But  the  amount 
spent  outright  for  drink  is  more  than  most  people  are 
willing  to  believe.  A  reformed  man  remarked  to  the 
author  not  long  since  :  ''If  I  had  stopped  years  before 
I  did  I  should  be  better  off  now.  When  I  was  drink- 
ing, it  was  nothing  for  me  to  step  into  a  saloon  in  the 
morning  and  spend  $5  before  I  came  out."  Mr.  Sims, 
in  his  paper  on  "  Horrible  London,"  says  :* 

"  It  is  only  when  one  probes  this  wound  that  one  finds  how  deep  it 


♦Quoted  by  Gustafson,  "  Foundation  of  Death,"  p.  254. 


346  ECOXOMIOS   OF   PfiOHIBITION. 

is.  Much  as  I  have  seen  of  the  drink  evil,  it  was  not  until  I  came  to 
study  one  special  district,  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  how  far  the 
charge  of  drunkenness  could  be  maintained  against  the  poor  as  a 
body,  that  I  had  any  idea  of  the  terrible  extent  to  which  this  cause 
of  poverty  prevails." 

Else  how  do  you  explain  it  that  a  man  who  has  worked 
for  weeks  in  a  Local  Option  town  and  is  paid  $40  on 
Saturday  night  goes  to  a  '*  wet  town"  over  Sunday  "  on 
a  fearful  drunk,"  comes  back  about  Tuesday,  and  has  to 
get  trusted  for  a  small  sack  of  flour  ?  Such  cases  are 
happening  all  the  time,  as  every  well-informed  person 
knows. 

So  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  let  the  one  hundred  men 
whom  we  have  seen  to  be  earning  their  $600  a  year 
each,  and  spending  $60,000  in  the  aggregate — let  them 
become  confirmed  drinkers,  and  in  a  very  few  years 
their  trade  will  have  practically  disappeared.  Then  any 
live  merchant  will  say  :  ''  1  wouldn't  give  ten  cents  for 
the  trade  of  the  whole  batch.  I'd  rather  not  be  bothered 
with  it."  But  that  trade  once  meant  great  grocery 
stores  with  piled- up  sacks  of  flour,  barrels  of  sugar  and 
crackers,  and  all  kinds  of  supplies,  and  rows  of  clerks 
crowding  each  other  to  wait  on  the  customers.  It  meant 
the  meat  market  full  of  rows  of  hams,  jars  of  lard,  roasts 
and  steaks  and  boiling  pieces,  and  busy  men  behind  the 
counter.  It  meant  drays  full  of  great  cases  of  goods  for 
the  bustling  dry-goods  stores,  shoe  stores,  and  hat  stores. 
It  meant  a  comfortable,  genial  feeling  of  interest,  con- 
fidence, and  sympathy  between  employers  and  workers, 
buyers  and  sellers,  and  that  general  cheer  that  comes  to 
everybody  when  everybody  else  is  prospering. 

Well,  you've  destroyed  all  that,  and  it  won't  take 
many  clerks  to  wait  on  your  saloon-keeper  and  his  bar- 


THK    BE8T    CISTOMERS.  347 

tenr^ers.  Make  mncli  of  thtit  trade,  for  it's  the  most 
yoiiMl  get  now.  Hang  on  to  his  license  fee,  for  you  are 
going  to  need  it  badly  to  jail  these  laboring  men  when 
they  **  get  into  trouble"  and  to  support  their  families 
while  they  are  in  the  workhouse.  ^'What  fools  these 
mortals  be.'' 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


THE    TRADESMEN. 


••  Jr  in  every  eleventh  year  a  fire  should  be  kindled  in  the  United 
States  on  the  first  of  Jannary,  and  continue  burning  till  the  last 
moment  in  December,  and  if  every  particle  of  our  agricultural  and 
manufactured  products,  as  fast  as  they  are  produced,  should  be  cast 
into  the  flames,  and  burned  up  until  only  the  ashes  remain,  it  would 
not  inflict  as  much  injury  upon  our  people  as  is  produced  every 
eleven  years  by  the  use  and  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks.  The  money 
expended  for  these  drinks  is  not  only  lost,  but  the  drinks  entail  upon 
our  people  the  additional  evils  of  vice,  wretchedness,  crime,  and  de- 
moralization, that  far,  very  far,  outweigh  the  value  of  the  money  ex- 
pended for  them.  If  the  products  to  the  value  of  the  money  spent 
for  drinks  were  only  destroyed  by  fire  or  flood,  it  would  not  deprive 
our  industrious  classes  of  the  mental  and  physical  power  to  replace 
them,  as  do  the  things  for  which  their  hard-earned  millions  are  ex- 
pended. What  nation  or  people,  however  favored,  can  long  exist  and 
prosper  who  expend  or  waste  the  value  of  so  much  labor  for  poison 
ons  drinks  ?  Can  we  wonder  that  we  have  money  panics,  hard  times, 
and  stagnation  of  trade  ?"—  William  Hargreaves,  M.  D. 

Trade  is  the  life  of  civilization.  It  is  of  no  nse  to 
me  that  there  are  fifty  million  bushels  of  wheat  in  Dakota. 
I  cannot  charter  a  car  to  bring  me  a  sack  of  flour.  In 
fact,  the  wheat  wouldn't  be  flour  after  I  got  it  unless  it 
went  through  a  grist- mill.  I  want  some  man  to  buy  that 
wheat  by  the  thousand  bushels.  I  want  another  man  to 
run  a  grist-mill,  turning  out  flour  by  the  hundreds  of 
barrels.  I  want  a  wholesale  grocer  to  keep  a  warehouse, 
from  which  my  retail  grocer  may  order  a  hundred  sacks 
and  send  me  one  when  I  am  ready  for  it.     I  want  rail- 


THE   TRADESMEN-.  349 

roadft  over  which  that  wheat  shall  be  tran8ported  before 
it  is  ground,  and  the  flour  transported  afterward.  I 
want  laborers  to  build  those  roads,  trackmen  to  walk 
them,  engineers  and  conductors  and  brakemen  to  run 
the  trains,  coal  to  feed  the  engines,  iron  to  make  them 
of,  miners, to  dig  out  the  coal  and  iron,  foundries  and 
furnaces  to  melt  that  iron,  rolling  mills,  locomotive  and 
car  works,  and  a  host  of  machinists  to  make  the  rails  and 
engines  and  cars  that  are  to  bring  me  my  sack  of  flour. 
Ineed  other  factories  to  make  the  ploughs  that  break  the 
ground,  the  drills  that  sow  the  wheat,  the  reapers  and 
binders  that  harvest  it,  and  the  threshing  machines  that 
separate  the  grain.  1  need  horses  and  wagons  to  work 
on  the  farms,  to  haul  the  wheat  to  the  train  and  the  flour 
across  the  city,  and  the  delivery  w^agon  that  brings  it  to 
my  door.  1  need  harness-makers  to  make  the  harness 
for  those  horses,  wheelwrights  to  make  the  wagons,  and 
teamsters  to  drive  them  and  to  handle  the  goods.  I  need 
millwrights  to  build  the  grist-mills  and  keep  them  in 
repair,  elevators  and  warehouses  to  store  the  grain  and 
flour,  and  a  good  building  for  my  grocer  to  keep  store 
in.  I  want  thousands  of  quarrymen  to  get  out  stone  for 
those  buildings  and  masons  to  set  the  stone,  lime  quarries 
to  burn  the  lime  for  mortar  and  plastering,  brick-yards  to 
make  brick  by  the  million,  and  bricklayers  to  build  the 
walls.  I  need  carpenters  to  shape  the  timbers,  build  the 
roofs  and  floors  and  the  thousands  of  wooden  cottages 
that  all  these  workmen  will  live  in,  and  thousands  of 
lumbermen  in  the  forests  of  Maine  and  Michigan  to  fell 
the  trees,  and  saw-mills  to  saw  the  lumber,  engines  to 
run  those  saw-mills,  lumber-yards  to  keep  the  lumber 
in,  and  steamers,  barges,  and  tugs  on  the  lakes  to  bring 
it  to  the  lamber-vards. 


350  EtU-NuMiCS    01-     PKuHllilTlOX. 

It  sets  a  large  part  of  the  continent  astir  and  employs 
an  army  of  men  to  furnish  me  my  sack  of  flour.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  chair  I  sit  in,  the  paper  I  write  on, 
and  every  article  of  furniture,  food,  and  clothing  in  my 
house.  The  dollar  and  one-half  I  spend  for  my  sack  of 
flour  sets  all  these  thousand  wheels  of  industry  in  motion, 
and  never  rests  till  part  of  it  reaches  the  farms  of  Dakota 
and  part  of  it  the  coal  and  iron  mines  of  Pennsylvania. 
Nor  does  it  rest  then,  for  the  farmers  spend  it,  and  the 
miners  spend  it,  and  it  starts  on  again. 

The  same  money  is  used  over  and  over,  like  the  water 
in  a  mill  stream.  The  water  comes  to  the  first  mill,  and 
rushes  through  its  great  wheels,  setting  every  shaft  in 
that  mill  whirling.  But  the  water  does  not  stay  in  the 
wheels.  If  it  did  it  would  do  no  good.  It  is  as  neces- 
sary that  it  should  rush  out  as  that  it  should  rush  in,  and 
when  it  comes  out  it  comes  with  all  its  power  in  it.  On 
it  goes  to  turn  the  wheels  of  the  next  mill,  and  the  next, 
and  the  next,  the  same  water  used  over  and  over  again, 
starting  new  machinery,  giving  employment  to  new 
hands  all  along  its  course.  So  if  the  nation  saves  its 
thousand  millions  of  drink-money,  that  will  not  merely 
bless  millions  of  homes  and  satisfy  the  immediate  wants 
of  those  now  intemperate,  but  the  effect  will  be  felt  in 
all  branches  of  industry.  Saving  $1,000,000,000  will 
not  nearly  describe  the  benefit,  nor  can  we  trace  it  to  all 
its  rich  results.  That  thousand  millions  will  be  spent 
over  and  over  again  by  each  one  to  whom  it  comes,  per- 
petually multiplying  itself  as  it  pays  new  labor  and  skill, 
which  results  in  new  wealth-production. 

The  immediate  objection  will  be  made  by  many  that 
the  same  amount  expended  in  liquors  will  employ  just 
as  many  persons.     The  answer  is  that  the  liquor  trades 


THK    TKAUESMKX.  .'Jf)! 

are  a  class  by  themselves,  employing  a  remarkably  small 
number  of  persons  for  the  value  of  the  product,  whether 
at  wholesale  or  retail.  While  the  percentage  of  the 
wholesale  value  of  the  product  expended  for  labor  in  all 
other  industries  is  17.87,  in  the  liquor  business  it  is  only 
10.45.  The  increase  in  the  cost  of  liquor  to  the  con- 
sumer over  the  wholesale  price  is  something  enormous — 
viz.,  from  $144,000,000  at  the  manufactory  (in  1880)  to 
$734,000,000  as  purchased  by  the  consumers,  or  an  in- 
crease of  more  than  400  per  cent.  Comparatively  a 
small  number  of  persons  are  engaged  in  handling  the  re- 
tail article.  Dry  goods,  groceries,  etc.,  differ  greatly  in 
quality  and  style.  They  require  many  persons  to  show 
them.  They  are  also  bulky,  and  require  many  persons 
to  handle  them.  One  thoughtful  and  innocent  lady  can 
tire  out  a  dozen  clerks  and  salesmen  in  an  easy  trip  down 
a  dry  goods  store,  and  leave  them  laboriously  putting 
away  long  after  she  is  gone.  But  liquors  are  small  in 
bulk  and  limited  in  variety.  A  full  supply  can  be  kept 
behind  a  single  bar,  within  reach  of  one  man's  hand. 
The  appetites  of  the  customers  are  sharp,  clear,  and  ex- 
ceedingly definite.  The  glass  of  beer  is  drawn  in  an 
instant,  and  the  automatic  fixture  closes  of  itself.  The 
whiskey  is  poured  into  the  glass  with  a  turn  of  the  hand, 
the  cork  thrust  into  the  bottle,  the  change  swept  into 
the  till,  and  the  sale  is  made.  One  man  can  wait  on  a 
crowd  and  scarcely  stir  from  his  place.  It  needs  no 
package  clerk  to  do  up  the  bundle,  no  cash-boy  to  run 
with  the  change.  The  goods  are  gulped  down  on  one 
side  of  the  counter,  the  money  is  gulped  down  on  the 
other,  and  the  transaction  is  complete. 

A   bushel  of  corn  for  which   the  farmer  gets  thirty 
cents   requires  heavy    ploughing,    harrowing,  planting, 


;jr)2  ECOXOMICS   OF    PROHIblTTOX. 

and  cultivating  in  the  hot  sun,  and,  besides,  cutting, 
binding,  husking,  loading,  and  hauling.  A  bar-keeper 
will  stand  in  a  comfortable  room  and  sell  to  the 
farmer  thirty  cents'  worth  of  whiskey  in  three  min- 
utes, with  no  other  exertion  than  a  sweep  of  his 
arm,  and  on  that  sale  he  will  make  a  profit  of  400  per 
cent,  above  the  cost  of  production.  Thus  $1,000,000,- 
000  expended  for  useful  articles  employ  433,000  persons, 
while  expended  for  liquor,  the  same  amount  will  employ 
but  41,000  persons  in  its  production.  Hence,  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  other  trades  stand  no  chance  at  all  beside  the 
liquor  trade,  and  that  when  men  of  other  callings  trade 
with  the  Saloon-keeper,  he  must  gain  a  steady  and  heavy 
advantage,  and  that  just  so  fast  as  he  grows  rich  they 
must  grow  poor.  By  a  liberal  calculation,  based  on  the 
brewers'  own  estimates  and  the  census  reports,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  money  invested  in  liquors  employs,  includ- 
ing all  who  raise  the  grain,  etc.,  only  one-ninth  of  the 
labor  which  the  same  amount  would  employ  if  spent  for 
grist-mill  products.  The  liquor  traffic,  therefore,  cannot 
be  averaged  with  any  other  business  in  computing  the 
amount  of  labor  employed  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
Bold. 

Another  objection  will  be  that  we  have  computed  the 
amount  spent  for  liquors  on  the  retail  basis,  and  the 
amount  spent  foi:  other  goods  on  the  wholesale  basis  ; 
that,  in  reality,  the  people  would  not  be  able  to  buy  all 
these  amounts  of  other  products  if  they  did  not  drink, 
because  they  could  not  buy  at  the  wholesale  prices,  and 
at  the  retail  prices  they  would  get  only  one-half  or  at 
most  three-fourths  of  the  amount  above  given.  Tiiis 
objection  seems  very  reasonable  at  first  thought.  But 
on  consideration  it  will  appear  that  we  have  that  amply 


THE    TRADESMEN.  353 

provided  for.  In  all  this  computation  we  have  taken  into 
account  only  the  direct  cost  of  the  intoxicants,  making 
no  mention  of  the  indirect,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  will 
be  at  least  as  much  more.  This  restores  the  balance. 
If  a  man  earns  $15  a  week  and  spends  it  on  a  spree,  he 
will  probably  lose  the  next  week's  work  as  the  result. 
That  will  be  the  same  in  cost  to  him  as  if  he  had  worked 
both  weeks  and  spent  the  $30.  If  he  had  not  drunk  the 
liquor  and  had  worked  steadily  the  two  weeks  he  would 
have  had  the  $30  to  spend  for  useful  articles,  and  it 
would  have  been  so  spent.  So  when  we  have  found 
what  the  nation's  thousand  million  dollars  would  buy  at 
wholesale,  we  have  still  another  thousand  millions  to 
compensate  the  retailers  for  handling  the  product  and 
bringing  it  to  every  man's  hand  and  door. 

Then  the  money  so  spent  is  going  to  be  used  over  and 
over  again.  The  grocers  will  buy  dry  goods,  and  the 
dry  goods  dealers  will  buy  groceries,  and  all  will  need 
boots  and  shoes,  hats  and  caps.  Everybody  is  the  cus- 
tomer of  everybody  else.  The  two  thousand  millions 
once  paid  for  useful  articles  will  immediately  start  on 
again,  keeping  the  great  tide-mill  of  industry  turning 
still. 

Many  incidental  advantages  will  be  found.  The 
grocer's  profits  will  not  be  merely  in  increased  sales,  but 
in  increased  receipts.  People  eat  now.  The  judgment 
of.  charity  leads  the  grocer  to  trust  those  who  can  be 
trusted  with  any  show  of  reason.  Then  the  saloon 
gobbles  up  the  money,  and  the  grocer  is  left  with  a  string 
of  bad  debts.*  In  one  city,  the  author  was  told  of  a  single 


*  See  Chapter  XVII.,  p.  276,  how  the  business  men  of  Atlanta, 
over  and  over,  tell  of  the  danger  of  trusting  and  the  difficulty  of  col- 
lecting "  since  the  return  of  the  bar-rooms." 


354  ECONOMICS   OF   PROfllBITIOX. 

firm  of  grocers,  doing  a  large  business,  who  bad  lost  in 
tbis  way  $75,000  in  fifteen  years.  The  boarding-house- 
keepers meet  the  same  fate — one  of  the  most  cruel  forms 
of  fraud,  because  most  of  them  are  needy  and  dependent 
women.  A  worker  m  a  great  machine  establishment 
told  me  of  several  young  men  without  families  who 
earned  $4  to  $5  a  day,  when  they  worked,  and  would 
drink  and  gamble  it  all  away  as  fast  as  received.  *'  How 
do  they  live  ?"  I  asked.  He  answered  :  ''  They  run  up 
a  bill  at  the  boarding-house,  and  when  the  landlady 
won't  trust  them  any  longer  they  go  to  a  new  boarding- 
house,  and  she  never  can  collect  her  bill,  because  they 
haven't  anything.  Fellows  that  live  that  way  have  to 
beat  it  out  of  somebody." 

Then  the  community  loses  it.  The  landlady  cannot 
buy  the  new  dress  for  herself,  the  shoes  and  hats  for  her 
children,  the  new  furniture,  carpets,  and  bedding,  the 
need  of  which  is  so  manifest.  Then,  when  she  has  to 
sell  ofi^  her  furniture  to  a  second-hand  dealer  for  a  song, 
give  up  her  house  and  leave  town,  there'll  be  one  less 
good  renter,  one  less  good  customer  at  the  grocer's  and 
the  provision  dealer's,  and  these  men  will  be  wondering 
what  makes  the  hard  times,  and  think  probably  it's  be- 
cause the  tariff  is  too  high,  or  not  high  enough.  It  is 
the  far-reaching  trail  of  the  saloon-keeper. 

But  would  this  money  be  spent  for  useful  articles  if 
not  for  liquors  ?     The  answer  is  emphatically  YES. 

One  little  town  1  know  that  adopted  local  prohibition 
three  years  ago.  It  had  then  three  saloons.  There  was 
an  immediate  change.  The  loafing  crowds  in  the  even- 
ings disappeared.  Croakers  exclaimed,  ''  The  town  is 
rained."  The  liquor  men  urged  on  the  cry  and  spread 
it  to  other  places.     Certainly  the  noisy  evening  crowds 


THE   TRADESMEN.  355 

no  longer  thronged  the  sidewalks.  The  farmers'  horses 
no  longer  stood  hitched  at  all  the  posts  through  sun  and 
rain  and  snow,  for  hours  together.  Several  houses  he- 
came  vacant.  One  tenant  removed  his  goods  at  dusk  on 
a  Sunday  evening,  for  some  mysterious  reason,  and 
started  for  a  whiskey  town.  But  soon  a  clothing  dealer 
took  one  vacant  saloon,  tore  out  the  interior,  put  in  ele- 
gant fixtures,  and  a  fine  stock  of  goods.  A  grocer  re- 
fitted another  empty  saloon.  An  enterprising  young 
man  started  still  another  grocery  on  the  cash  plan,  when 
for  along  time  there  had  been  ^' too  many  groceries." 
But  he  prospered,  because  there  was  cash  in  the  town  to 
buy  with.  Soon  a  dry  goods  firm  bought  the  building 
in  the  rear  of  their  store,  took  out  the  partition,  and 
made  one  room  of  the  two  in  order  to  get  space  for  their 
business.  It  was  not  long  before  they  leased  still  an- 
other in  rear  of  that.  After  the  law  had  existed  a  year 
and  a  half,  a  Local  Option  contest  in  a  neighboring  town 
led  us  to  look  up  the  facts.  The  dry  goods  firm  said  : 
"  If  this  is  ruin,  we  are  ready  to  be  ruined  right  along 
in  the  same  way  for  the  next  ten  years.  "We  have  never 
done  such  a  business.  You  have  only  to  look  around 
our  store  and  see  for  yourself."  On  mentioning  to 
them  a  report  that  former  customers  from  the  country 
were  now  taking  their  trade  to  other  towns,  they  an- 
swered :  *'  None  that  we  know  of  that  we  care  to  keep. 
On  the  contrary,  we  are  getting  a  new  run  of  custom 

from  the  country  around  !^[ (a  whiskey  town),  and 

some  of  their  very  best — ladies  who  want  to  buy  nice 
and  expensive  goods,  and  don't  want  to  go  througli  the 
kind  of  crowd  that  hangs  around  saloons  in  order  to  do 
it.  Tlioy  are  driving  down  here  now.  They  are  com- 
ing to  our  town  for  their  furniture,  too."     Tlio  mer- 


356  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

chant  paused  a  moment,  and  then  said  :  ^*  The  fact  is, 
there's  no  money  in  a  crowd  that  hangs  around  all  the 
evening  because  they  can  get  whiskey.  They  donH  buy 
anything  hut  whiskey.  There's  no  money  in  a  gang  of 
farmers  sitting  around  the  saloons  the  best  part  of  the 
day.  If  they  stay  at  home  and  work  their  farms,  then, 
wlien  they  do  come  to  town,  they'll  have  something  to 
buy  with." 

The  coal  dealer  said  shortly  :  **  Never  had  such  good 
sales  and  so  few  bad  debts.  It  stands  to  reason  that  if 
people  don't  buy  whiskey,  they'll  have  some  money  to 
buy  something  else  v/ith,  and  in  this  climate  they're 
bound  to  keep  warm."  The  clothing  dealer,  in  the 
renovated  saloon,  said  ;  ^'  We've  sold  $3,000  worth 
more  goods  the  past  year  than  any  year  before  of  the  ten 
years  we've  been  here.  If  you  wish,  I'll  show  yon  our 
books."  The  new  cash  grocer  said  :  *^  My  business  has 
done  splendidly.  I  have  the  largest  drayage  in  the  place 
but  one.     I  must  get  a  larger  room." 

So  it  went  on.  Now,  after  three  years,  a  new  town- 
hall  has  been  built,  at  an  expense  of  $15,000.  Wooden 
stores  are  being  removed  and  fine  brick  buildings  put  in 
their  places.  A  new  furniture  store  has  been  opened 
and  a  new  brick  church  built.  All  the  other  churches 
have  been  newly  frescoed,  and  two  of  them  have  put  in 
pipe  organs.  Fine  new  residences  are  springing  up  at 
commanding  points  and  old  ones  are  remodelled  till 
they,  too,  seem  new.  Almost  all  the  old  stores  and  the 
majority  of  private  residences  have  been  newly  painted, 
till  the  town  looks  like  a  new  place  of  a  In'gher  and  hap- 
pier grade.  Painters  and  paper-hangers  cannot  keep  up 
with  their  orders.  The  former  bar-keeper  of  one  of  the 
saloons  has  engagements  as  a  paper-hanger  for  weeks  in 


THE   TRADESMEN.  857 

advance,  and  has  built  himself  a  new  houst.  But  that 
liquor  towns  are  too  easily  accessible  across  the  borders^ 
this  town  would  be  enjoying  almost  unqualiHed  pros- 
perity. One  of  the  council  said  :  **  Why,  we  used  to 
pay  our  night  police  out  of  the  fines,  but  now  we  have 
no  fines  to  pay  him  with.  We  have  to  pay  him  out  of 
the  taxes.  But  we  can  afford  to.  We  make  enough 
more  in  other  ways."  The  town  has  no  trouble  in  keep- 
ing the  back  door  of  the  saloons  closed  on  Sunday  since 
it  shut  the  front  door  the  rest  of  the  week.  An  air  of 
quiet  prosperity  and  happiness  pervades  the  whole  town. 
Prohibition  pays  and  nays  well. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    FARMERS. 

**  RsMABEABiiE  WiLL.— A  Wealthy  farmer  of County  has  jnst 

died,  beqneathiiig  his  whole  property  to  the  saloons  and  gambling 
houses  of  his  native  town.  His  four  sons  are  made  his  executors, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  entire  amount  reaching  its  destination.'* 
— Tennessee  Paper. 

"  There  is  a  sore  evil  which  I  have  seen  under  the  sun — namely, 
riches  kept  for  the  owners  thereof  to  their  hurt.  But  those  riches 
perish  by  evil  travail :  and  he  begetteth  a  son,  and  there  is  nothing 
in  his  hand." — Ecd.  v.,  13,  14. 

Riding  one  day  through  a  fair  and  fertile  valley  of 
Ohio,  among  thrifty  and  beautiful  farms,  one  house  im- 
pressed me  with  sudden  contrast.  It  was  a  grand  old 
mansion  with  verandas  before  it,  shade  trees  around,  but 
with  an  indescribable  air  of  decay,  as  if  a  blight  so  many 
acres  square  had  fallen  upon  that  one  estate.  The  house 
had  once  been  white,  but  the  paint  was  worn  away,  ex- 
cept for  a  trace  here  and  there,  and  the  wood-work  was 
black  from  exposure  to  the  weather.  The  shingles  of 
the  roof  lay  in  wind-rows.  Quilts  and  hats  and  old 
clothes  were  stulfed  in  the  broken  windows,  and  some — 
where,  apparently,  there  were  not  old  clothes  enough  to 
till  them — were  roughly  boarded  up.  The  fence  was 
leaning  and  the  gate  was  down  ;  boards  were  entirely 
gone  from  the  sides  of  the  barn  and  others  hung  loose, 
flapping  in  the  wind.  **  Who  lives  there  ?"  I  suddenly 
inquired.      My  companion  gave  me  a  name  which  told 


THE    FARMERS.  359 

the  wliole  story.  The  son  of  a  wealthy  man,  inheritor 
of  a  splendid  farm,  himself  a  hard  and  skilful  worker, 
Init  every  little  while  brutally  drunk.  Whiskey  had  the 
same  effect  on  his  windows  in  the  pure,  beautiful  coun- 
try that  it  does  upon  the  winfy)W8  of  the  forlorn  tene- 
ment-houses in  the  cities.  It  only  needed  to  have  the 
rest  of  the  farmers  like  him  to  make  that  whole  country- 
side desolate  and  dreadful. 

Not  long  after  I  drove  out  on  another  road  in  the  same 
section.  There  was  a  house  of  entirely  different  con- 
struction, a  large  and  once  opulent  mansion  of  solid 
brick.  But  Desolation  had  sat  down  upon  it.  What 
ailed  the  grass  ?  What  ailed  the  trees  ?  The  very  air 
around  seemed  murky  and  stilling.  The  pair  of  bony 
horses  with  sore  backs,  savagely  twitching  tufts  of  grass  in 
the  door-yard,  laid  back  their  ears  and  hung  their  under- 
lips  with  an  air  at  once  disreputable  and  defiant.  Here, 
too,  it  only  needed  a  name  to  tell  the  whole  story — 
"  a  man  mighty  to  drink  wine,  a  man  of  strength  to 
mingle  strong  drink."  Unless  something  intervenes, 
neither  of  these  farms  will  go  down  another  generation 
in  the  same  family.  In  fact,  I  have  been  told  that  one 
of  these  men  is,  even  now,  in  the  language  of  the  coun- 
try, *'  all  broke  up." 

I  once  knew  a  very  accomplished  hostler.  He  knew 
Latin,  French,  and  mathematics,  and  was  well  versed  in 
English  literature.  He  had  graduated  at  West  Point, 
and  had  held  honorable  and  responsible  positions.  Two 
fine  farms  had  come  to  him  by  inheritance.  One  day 
he  went  to  a  physician  and  said  :  *'  Doctor,  I  want  you 
to  examine  my  throat."  The  doctor  did  so,  and  re- 
plied :  *' I  don't  see  anything  wrong."  '*  Don't  you 
POO    nnvthingr    dr)\vTi    thoro  V       *'  Notliinrr    wliatever." 


360  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

'*  Well,  you  ought  to  see  two  good  farms,  for  thejVe 
both  gone  down  there."  Think  of  the  toil  and  sweat, 
the  early  rising,  the  miles  tramped  behind  the  plough, 
the  wood-chopping  and  stiimp-grubbing,  the  acres  swept 
by  the  old  hand  scythe,  the  ditches  dug  and  tilled,  the 
rails  split  and  fences  built  to  make  out  of  the  wilderness 
those  tw^o  good  farms  for  the  heir  to  pour  down  his 
throat,  or,  more  strictly,  to  give  to  the  saloon-keeper  for 
no  consideration  whatever. 

A  touching  poem  expresses  the  same  thought : 

SIGNING  THE   FABM  AWAY. 

Fine  old  farm  for  a  hundred  years 

Kept  in  the  family  name  ; 
Corn  fields  rich  with  golden  ears 

Oft  as  the  harvest  came  ; 
Crowded  barn  and  crowded  bin, 
And  still  the  loads  kept  coming  in — 
Rolling  in  for  a  hundred  years  ; 
And  the  fourth  in  the  family  line  appears. 

Orchards  covered  the  slopes  of  the  hill  ; 

Cider— forty  barrels  they  say, 
Sure  in  season  to  come  from  the  mill, 

To  be  tasted  around  Thanskgiving  Day  I 
And  they  drank  as  they  worked  and  ate, 
Winter  and  summer,  early  and  late, 
Counting  it  as  a  great  mishap 
To  be  found  without  a  •<  barrel  on  tap." 

But,  while  the  seasons  crept  along, 

And  passions  into  habits  grew. 
Their  appetites  became  as  strong 

As  ever  any  drunkard  knew. 
And  they  labored  less,  and  they  squandered  more. 
Chiefly  for  rum  at  the  village  store, 
Till  called  by  the  sheriff,  one  bitter  day, 
To  sign  the  homestead  farm  away. 


THE    FARMERS.  3tii 

The  father,  shuttered  and  scented  with  rum  : 

The  mother,  sick  and  pale  and  thin, 
"Cnder  tbe  weight  of  her  sorrows  dumb, 

In  debt  for  the  bed  she  was  lying  in  ; 
I  saw  the  wrecked  household  around  her  stand— 
And  the  justice  lifted  her  trembling  hand, 
Helping  her,  as  in  her  bed  she  lay. 
To  sign  the  homestead  farm  away. 

Ah,  how  she  wept,  and  the  flood  of  tears 

Swept  down  her  temples  bare  ! 
And  the  father,  already  bowed  with  years, 

Bowed  lower  with  despair. 
Drink  !     Drink  !     It  had  ripened  into  woe 
For  them  and  all  they  loved  below, 
And  forced  them,  poor,  and  old,  and  gray. 
To  sign  the  homestead  farm  away. 

Oh,  many  scenes  have  I  met  in  my  life, 

And  many  a  call  to  pray  ; 
But  the  saddest  of  all  was  the  drunkard's  wife. 

Signing  the  homestead  farm  away  ! 
Home,  once  richest  in  all  the  town, 
Home,  in  that  fatal  cup  poured  down, 
Worse  than  fire  or  flood's  dismay — 
Drunkards  signing  the  farm  away  ! 

—  Congregationalisl. 

I  asked  a  man  who  has  had  extensive  business  dealings 
as  a  real  estate  and  produce  dealer  in  an  agricultural  dis- 
trict, How  does  intemperance  hurt  a  farmer  ?  ^'  Well,"  ^^ 
he  answered,  *'  if  he  goes  to  the  saloon  for  his  drinks, 
the  loss  of  time  is  pretty  heavy.  Perhaps  you'll  see 
such  a  man's  horses  hitched  in  front  of  a  saloon  from 
early  in  the  forenoon  till  along  in  the  afternoon  with 
nothing  to  eat.  Then  you  may  know  that  man's  farm 
is  running  down,  unless  somebody  else  is  doing  the  work. 
In  any  case,  there's  one  man's  wages  lost,  for  that  man 
won't  do  much  work  after  he  gets  home.      Then  the 


362  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION'. 

money  he  spends  is  a  good  deal,  even  if  he  drinks  at 
home.  It  amounts  to  more  than  you  could  make  him 
believe,  generally.  But  the  worst  thing  is,  it  hurts  his 
judgment  about  putting  in  crops,  and  about  trading  and 
dickering ;  and  he  always  wants  to  be  doing  that  when 
he  isn't  fit  for  it.  Just  those  times  he's  always  full  of 
confidence,  and  thinks  he  knows  it  all,  and  anybody  can 
take  advantage  of  him." 

"  It  hurts  his  judgment."  How  much  that  means! 
I  met  a  stout  farmer  in  town  one  rainy  day  with  a  very 
cheerful  face.  On  my  remarking  about  the  storm,  he 
replied  :  ^'  I  don't  mind  it  a  bit.  I've  got  my  oats  in. 
Lots  of  'em  feel  bad,  though,  because  they  haven't."  A 
difference  of  a  day  or  two  in  judgment  of  the  most  neces- 
sary thing  to  do  made  a  difference  in  the  result  which 
they  might  chase  in  vain  all  summer. 

At  another  time  I  myself  importuned  a  Sunday-school 
superintendent,  who  was  also  a  good  farmer,  to  come  to 
a  Sunday-school  picnic.  He  steadily  refused,  saying  : 
**  1  can't  do  it.  I've  fifteen  acres  of  clover  hay  that 
ought  to  be  cut,  and  this  dry  weather  has  lasted  so  long 
tliat  it  won't  last  much  longer.  I  must  take  care  of  my 
crops,  if  I'm  to  have  anything  to  give  to  the  church." 
He  resisted  all  persuasion,  went  into  that  hay-field,  and  the 
day  after  the  picnic  ran  his  last  load  of  hay  onto  the  barn 
floor  about  fifteen  minutes  before  a  lieavy  storm,  which 
was  the  beginning  of  three  weeks  of  rainy  weather.  A  lit- 
tle matter  of  judgment  I  If  you  could  have  got  that  man 
to  take  a  little  whiskey  to  distract,  a  few  glasses  of  beer 
to  stupefy,  he  would  not  have  had  the  clear  foresight. 
He  would  have  gone,  "  like  a  good  fellow,"  anywhere 
that  promised  to  be  agreeable.  I  believe  my  friend  hit 
the  nail  on  the  head  when  he  paid,  *'  The  worst  effect  of 


THi:    1  AKMliKS.  363 

drink  on  the  farmer  is  that  it  hurts  liis  judgment."  No 
amount  of  hard  work  will  make  up  for  blunders  of  judg- 
ment. 

We  have  come  across  a  scrap  which  well  illustrates 
how  the  liquor  traffic  throws  the  balance  of  toil  and 
profit  against  the  farmer  : 

THE  COST  OF  A  BUSHEL  OF  ^COKN. 

There  is  a  statistician  about  the  Palmer  House  who  desires  to  im- 
press every  one  with  economic  facts.  Said  he  recently  to  a  Chicago 
reporter:  "Do  you  see  that  man  over  there?  Well,  he's  a  farmer 
down  near  Elgin.  There  he  goes  with  a  friend  ;  they  are  going  to 
got  a  drink.  The  farmer  will  pay  for  it.  Now,  let  me  see.  That 
man  will  sweat  two  mortal  hours  next  spring  to  plough  enough 
ground  to  raise  one  bushel  of  corn.  The  bushel  of  corn  he  will  sell 
for  thirty  cents.  He  is  going  in  there  now  to  spend  the  thirty  cents 
for  two  drinks.  Therefore,  the  farmer  and  the  corn  have  parted. 
Now  let  me  tell  you  what  becomes  of  the  corn.  A  bushel  of  corn 
will  make  seventeen  quarts  of  whiskey — four  and  one  quarter  gallons. 
The  distillery  gets  its  first  profit— forty  cents  a  gallon.  There  you 
are- $2  for  that  bushel  of  com.  Now  the  Government  comes  in, 
ninety  cents  a  gallon— $3.S5  added  to  the  $2  makes  $5.85.  That 
brings  the  product  of  the  bushel  of  com  down  to  the  jobber  and  the 
wholesaler,  and  finally,  by  several  stages,  to  the  retailer.  By  the 
time  it  reaches  the  latter  the  bushel  of  corn,  or  its  product  of  four 
and  one-quarter  gallons,  has  been  reduced  one-half,  which  means 
eight  and  one-half  gallons.  There  are  sixty  drinks  to  the  gallon  ; 
that  is  the  average  ;  eight  and  one-half  gallons  mean  five  hundred 
and  ten  drinks,  at  fifteen  cents  each  ;  there  we  have  $76.50  as  the 
consumer's  price  for  a  bushel  of  corn  which  the  farmer  raises  and 
sells  for  thirty  cents.  Who  says  there  is  no  industry  in  this  coun- 
try ?  But  the  fanner  we  saw  just  now  spent  his  whole  bushel  of 
corn  in  the  price  of  two  drinks,  and  the  people  who  did  not  till  the 
soil  get  away  with  $76.15. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  at  such  a  ruinous  rate  of  competi- 
tion the  farmer  cannot  live.  lie  cannot  afford  to  sell 
his  bushel  of  com  for  thirty  cents  and  buy  it  back  again 
fpr  ST6.50.     That  is  the  whole  problem. 


3(;4  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

^^  Anyway,"  one  man  says,  ''  there's  a  deal  of  com- 
fort in  it,  if  it  does  cost  dear."  Yes,  and  there  are 
many  situations  wliere  there  is  nothing  so  bad  as  to  feel 
comfortable.  The  man  who  is  exposed  in  a  bitter  winter 
night  at  first  suffers  keenly.  Ears  and  fingers  and  feet 
are  stinging  with  pain.  At  length  he  gets  all  over  it. 
He  has  no  more  pain.  He  has  become  perfectly  com- 
fortable. He  will  just  lie  down  here  out  of  the  wind 
and  rest  a  little  while.  Ah,  that  feeling  comfortable 
means  death  !  If  he  has  a  friend  who  is  not  so  far  gone, 
and  who  knows  what  it  means,  he  will  rouse  him  out  of 
that  comfort.  He  will  shake  him,  force  him  to  walk, 
rub  his  face  and  ears  with  snow  till  they  tingle  and  burn 
like  fire,  beat  his  numb  hands  till  the  pain  is  almost  un- 
endurable. He  will  make  him  fearfully  uncomfortable 
— and  save  him.  There's  many  a  farmer  out  in  the 
pure,  open  country  perfectly  comfortable  with  a  foul 
drain  percolating  into  his  well,  till  he  and  his  family  get 
the  typhoid -fever.  Pity  he  had  not  been  worried  about 
it  enough  to  purify  and  sweeten  things.  No  comfort 
for  me,  I  thank  you,  in  a  freezing  night  or  with  a  foul 
well  I  The  comfort  of  whiskey  and  beer  simply  comes 
from  paralysis — the  paralyzing  of  all  the  finer  nerves 
and  sensibilities,  till  the  man  is  not  worried  over  the  old 
clothes  in  the  broken  windows,  the  neglected  crops,  the 
empty  pantry,  nor  the  notes  coming  duo  which  he  can't 
pay.  The  best  investment  he  could  make  would  be  a 
day  of  good,  downright  misery,  with  enough  manhood 
left  to  fight  the  causes  of  misfortune  by  square,  manly 
work,  sober  living,  and  honorable  saving.  Wait  to  be 
comfortable  till  the  comfort  is  somewhere  outside  of 
your  own  stomach  I 

But  we  are  told  the  liquor  traffic  is  a  real  financial 


THE    1  AKMKKS.  366 

benefit  to  the  farmers  in  buying  their  grain.  Where 
farmers  have  been  accustomed  to  seUing  to  brewery  and 
distillery,  they  actually  shiver  at  the  question,  ^*  What 
will  you  do  with  your  corn  ?" 

A  certain  amount  of  grain  is,  undoubtedly,  sold  to 
brewers  and  distillers,  and — what  is  especially  attractive 
to  farmers — sold  for  cash.  Could  the  farming  interest 
afford  to  lose  the  sale  of  that  amount  of  grain  ?  Let  us 
see. 

The  following  table  was  given  in  The  Voice  of  May 
9th,  1889  : 

HOW  THE    LIQUOR    TRAFFIC    ROBS   THE    FARMER. 

Pbohibition  would    put   at   least   $18  IN  HIS   Pocket  where  the 
LiQuoB   Traffic  puts  in  $1. 

Farmers  of  Pennsylvania,  the  enemies  of  Prohibition  tell  you  that 
to  do  away  with  the  liquor  tra£&c  will  ruin  the  grain  market  and 
otherwise  depress  the  interests  of  agriculture.  Let  us  do  a  little  fig- 
uring and  see  if  this  is  true. 

In  188G,  according  to  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agricul. 
ture,  the  total  value  of  all  the  products  of  the  farms  of  the  United 
States  for  that  year,  including  the  live-stock  oii  them,  was  $6,127,- 
805,932,  as  follows  : 

PRODUCTS    OF    THE    F.MIMS,    1886. 

BreadstufEs. 

Corn,            1,665,441.000  bushels,  worth  $010,311,000 

Wheat,             457,218.000         "  '•  314,220,020 

Oats,                 624,134,000         "  "  186,137,930 

Barley,               59.428,000         •♦  "  31.840,510 

Rye.                   24,489,000         "  "  13.181.330 

Buckwheat,       11,869,000         "  "  0,405.120 

Rice "  5,000.000 

Meats "  748,000.000 

Poultry  products "  186,000.000 

Hides,  hair,  etc  "  93,000,000 

Dairy  products. 

Butter    "  192,000.000 

Cheese *•  32.000.000 

Milk "  156.000.000 


366  ECONOMICS   Of   PKOHIBITIOX. 

Textile  fibres. 

Cotton worth  $257,295,327 

Wool "  77,000,000 

Hemp,  flax,  etc "  9,000,000 

Vegetables. 

Irish  potatoes,  168,051,000  bushels,  "  78.441,940 

Sweet  potatoes "  20,000,000 

Peas  and  beans "  13,800.000 

Market-garden  productions "  68,000,000 

Fruits "  175,000,000 

Hay,  41.796.499  tons "  353,437,699 

Tobacco,  532,537,000  lbs "  39.082,118 

Hops "  3,500,000 

Sugar,  syrnp,  and  honey "  33,500,000 

Clover  and  grass  seed.   "  15,000,000 

Total $3,717,218,994 

The  value  of  farm  animals  in  18S7  was  as  follows  : 

Horses 12,490,774  worth  $901 ,685.755 

Mules    2,117,141             "  167,057,538 

Milch  cows 14,522.083            "  378.789,589 

Oxen  and  other  cattle  33,511,750            "  663,137,926 

Sheep    ...    44,759.314            "  89,872,389 

Swine 44,612,836            "  200,043,291 

Total $2,400,586,938 

Estimating  one- fourth  of  this  $2,400,586,938,  or  in  round  numbers, 
$600,000,000,  as  the  annual  increase  from  the  farm  animals,  the  total 
products  of  the  farms  for  the  year  1886-87  therefore  amount  in  round 
numbers  to  $4,317,000,000.  What  proportion  of  this  value  is  due  to 
the  liquor  traffic  ?    Let  us  see. 

FABM   PBODU0T8   WHICH   OO   TO    MAKE   LIQUOR. 

Daring  the  year  ending  June  30,  1887,  according  to  the  report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  the  following  farm  products 
were  used  in  making  distilled  liquors  : 

Malt  (from  barley) 1,825.627  bushels. 

Wheat 45.361 

Barley 16.110 

Rye    3.062,947 

Corn 12,870.255 

Oats 44.880 

Mill  feed 93.060 


TliE    FAKMEKb.  3t)7 

Other  materials 1,319  bnBhels. 

Molasses 2,428,783  gallons. 

Total 17,959,565  bushels 

and  2,428,783  gallons. 

The  same  year  23,121,526  barrels  of  fermented  liquors  were  made. 
It  takes  two  bushels  of  malt,  or  their  equivalents,  and  two  pounds  of 
hops  to  make  a  barrel  of  beer,  according  to  Dr.  Francis  Wyatt,  Direct- 
or of  the  National  Brewers'  Academy.  At  this  rate,  about  24,800,000 
bushels  of  barley,  corn,  etc.,  and  41,000,000  pounds  of  hops  would 
be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  malt  liquors,  which,. added  to  the  ma- 
terials used  in  making  distilled  liquors,  makes  in  round  numbers  the 
total  of  the  farm  products  consumed  in  the  liquor  business  in  the 
years  1886-87  :  .  , 

42,700,000  bushels  of  grain,  worth $2,300,000 

Hops,  worth  in  1880  to  farmers 3,500,000 

2,428,782  galls,  of  molasses,  worth  to  farmers        500,000 

Total  gain  to  farmers  from  liquor  traflac. .  .$25,300,000 

But  this  $25,300,000  is  only  aboui  Jive  and  four -fifths  one  ihousandthg 
of  the  annual  value  of  the  products  of  the  farm.  In  other  words,  if 
the  annual  income  of  the  average  farmer  be  $500,  about  $2.93  of  his 
income,  estimating  most  favorably  for  the  saloon,  comes  from  the 
liquor  traffic. 

WHAT   THE   FABMZB   LOSES   BY  THE  MQUOB  TBAFFIO. 

Leaving  out  the  question  of  the  taxes  the  farmer  pays  to  support 
the  pauperism,  crime,  insanity,  and  other  expenses  caused  by  the  sa- 
loon. Dr.  William  Hargreaves,  the  statistician,  makes  this  estimate  of 
the  farmers'  annual  losses  from  the  liquor  traffic. 

If  the  $900,000,000  which  is  every  year  spent  for  drink  shonld  bo 
spent  for  the  necessaries  of  life — food,  clothing,  etc.— as  it  would  be 
spent  under  Prohibition,  Dr.  Hargreaves  estimates  that  the  yearly 
demands  for  the  products  of  the  farms  would  be  increased  as  follows  : 

HOW  PBOHIBrnON    WOULD   INCBEASE  THE  DEMAND  POB   FABM   PBODUCTS. 


Wheat  . .  .83.274.484  more  bush. 

Corn 20,498,226     " 

Oats 9,802,488     " 

Eye 1,110,625     '* 

Buckwheat      444,461     "         "      J 

Milk,  butter  and  cheese  from  farmers,  worth 1.000,000 


worth  to  farmers $181,157,263 


0G8  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

877,777  more  beeves    ) 

1,116  850  more  sheep  -  worth  to  farmers. $128,369,452 

8.049,214  more  hogs    \ 

Cheese  made  in  factories,  109, 942. 175  more  lbs.  )  to  f 'rm'rs      «  ^«^  «oq 
Butter      "               "            18,710,892        "          fformat'ls      ^.^°a.'°^ 
Fruit,  vegetables,  canned  goods,  etc,  (to  farmers  for  ma- 
terials)    ..\ 6,025  646 

Wool  for  carpets.  29,800,438  more  lbs.,  worth 3,487.564 

Cotton,  for  cotton  goods,  375,171,990  more  lbs.,  worth. .     43,477,862 

Cotton,  silk  and  wool,  for  mixed  textiles,  worth 18,613,870 

Wool,  for  woolen  goods,  98,762.477  more  lbs.,  besides 
washed  wool  and  shoddy  and  other  materials,  valued 

at 33,690.225 

Wool  for  worsted  goods,  33,891,972  more  lbs.,  worth 7,617,939 

Total  loss  to  farmers  from  liquor  traffic $432,621,610 

There  is  no  exaggeration  in  these  figures,  says  Dr.  Hargreaves. 
They  are  proportionate  estimates  based  on  the  Census  Keport  of  1880, 
and  they  by  no  means  include  all  the  products  of  the  farm,  an  extra 
quantity  of  which  the  farmer  would  be  called  upon  to  supply  should 
the  liquor  traffic  become  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  the  tens  of  thousands 
of  the  underfed,  under-clothed  and  ill-sheltered  drinkers  and  their 
families  spend  the  money  for  the  necessaries  of  life  instead  of  for 
liquor. 

In  the  face  of  this  extra  $432,000,000  worth  of  products  which  the 
farmer  would  be  called  upon  to  supply  under  Prohibition,  how  insig- 
nificant appears  the  paltry  $25,000,000  which  he  now  receives  from 
the  liquor  traffic,  and  which  no  one  doubts  he  more  than  pays  out  in 
support  of  the  paupers  and  criminals  produced  by  the  trnffic  ? 

Prohibition  would  put  eighteen  dollars  in  the  farmer's  pocket  whe:e 
the  liquor  traffic  puts  in  one. 

In  a  country  like  ours  some  new  use  could  at  any  time 
be  found  for  .58  of  1  per  cent,  of  the  total  product.  The 
remark  of  the  Illinois  farmer  never  loses  its  freshness, 
'*  We'd  raise  more  hogs  and  less  hell.'*  A  few  more 
hogs  or  young  cattle  to  fatten,  a  few  more  cows  to  milk, 
or  even  a  good  flock  of  chickens  on  every  farm  would 
dispose  of  that  much. 

But  the  answer  is,  **  "We  could  not  got  a  living  price 
for  any  of  it  if  that  much  more  was  thrown  on  the  gen- 


THi:    FARMERS.  iJOy 

eral  market,  for  we  can't  but  just  live  now."  The  lat- 
ter is  true  enough,  unfortunately.  But,  strange  to  say, 
you  could  get  a  higher  price  for  the  whole  crop  than  yon 
can  for  what  is  left  after  selling  to  the  brewers  and  dis- 
tillers. We  will  prove  it  to  you.  Will  a  hungry  man 
buy  something  to  eat  if  he  can  get  it  ?  Will  a  poor 
mother  buy  food  for  her  hungry  children  if  she  can  get 
the  money  to  pay  for  it  ?  Well,  suppose  you  shut  off 
squarely  the  $1,000,000,000  which  the  nation  now  spends 
for  whiskey  and  beer,  isn't  that  money  going  to  be  spent 
for  something  ?  Won't  the  families  of  drinking  men — 
won't  the  drinking  men  themselves,  when  they  quit 
drinking,  spend  that  money  for  clothes  and  food  and 
similar  articles  ? 

There  never  should  he  hard  times  for  the  producers 
when  millions  of  jpeople  are  hungry  for  their  produc- 
tions^ and  there  never  would  be  if  the  hungry  people 
had  anything  to  buy  witli  ;  and  they  would  have  if  they 
did  not  spend  their  earnings  for  liquor.  From  an  economic 
standpoint  it  is  a  itjonstrous  spectacle  that  in  the  city  there 
should  be  children  crying  for  bread,  and  in  tho  country 
farmers  lamenting  that  there  is  no  sale  for  their  grain. 
That  is  what  the  liquor  traffic  does  for  the  farmers. 

IT    DESTROYS    YOUE   MARKET. 

Here  is  a  city  containing  thousands  of  people  to  be 
fed.  Around  it  are  wide,  rich  farms,  barns  full  of  grain, 
and  a  great  surplus  stacked  out  in  the  field.  What  is 
the  natural  relief  for  the  hungry  city  ?  To  buy  the 
farmers'  grain.  What  is  the  natural  relief  for  the  farm- 
ers who  so  need  money  ?  To  sell  their  grain  to  the 
hungry  city.  But  now  comes  along  a  syndicate  and  says 
to  the  farmers  :  *'  We  will  buy  one  half  of  one  per  cent. 


370  ECONOMICS   OF    PKOHIBITIOX. 

of  your  grain  to  carry  out  a  plan  we  have  of  robbing  that 
city.  it's  a  brilliant  scheme  and  sure  to  work.  We 
will  take  from  a  large  part  of  the  population  everything 
they  have  and  everything  they  earn.  We  will  fehare 
with  you  to  the  extent  of  one  half  of  one  per  cent,  of 
your  total  product,  if  you  won't  interfere." 

The  farmer  replies,  '^  But  what  shall  I  do  with  the 
other  99 J  per  cent.  ?"  The  polite  agent  of  the  syndicate 
shrugs  his  shoulders  and  says  :  '*  I  don't  know  anything 
about  that.  You'll  have  to  sell  it  for  what  you  can  get. 
Those  city  people  won't  have  any  money  after  we  get 
through  with  them."  The  farmers  reply  :  ^'  Take  your 
half  of  one  per  cent.  We  don't  want  it  ;  and  now  you 
let  those  city  people  alone.  Leave  them  their  money 
and  they'll  buy  our  crop,  and  buy  it  all.  They'll  out- 
buy  you  a  hundred  to  one."  Tliat^s  exactly  the  case  of 
the  liquor  traffic.  They  buy  one  half  of  one  per  cent,  of 
your  grain,  and  then  destroy  the  natural  market  for  all 
the  rest,  depriving  the  people  of  their  buying  power. 

The  total  grist-mill  products  of  the  United  States,  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1880,  were  $505,000,000  in 
value,  almost  exactly  one-tenth  of  the  total  products  of 
all  kinds  of  industries,  $5,369,579,191.  At  the  same 
rate,  if  our  thousand  millions  of  liquor  money  were  spent 
for  useful  articles,  one-tenth  of  that  amount,  or  $100,- 
000,000,  would  be  spent  for  breadstuffs  in  addition  to 
what  is  now  expended  for  the  same  ;  that  is,  instead  of 
$25,000,000,  which  the  farmers  now  receive  for  grain 
used  for  the  destruction  of  life,  health,  and  happiness, 
they  would  receive  $100,000,000  for  grain  used  to  pre- 
serve life,  health,  and  happiness. 

Besides  this,  much  of  the  amount  spent  for  manufac- 
tured articles  would  come  to  the  farmers  of  the  country. 


THE    FARMERS.  371 

About  $100,000,000  would  be  spent  for  woollen  goods, 
clothings,  bedding,  carpets,  etc.,  and  to  make  these  our 
manufacturers  would  need  118,000,000  pounds  of  do- 
mestic wool.  Thip,  at  thirty  cents  a  pound,  would  amount 
to  more  than  $35,000,000. 

The  entire  amount  of  foreign  wool  imported  and  en- 
tered for  consumption  in  1880,  about  which  a  national 
campaign  has  been  fought,  was  but  97,231,277  pounds, 
valued  at  $14,062,100,  on  which  the  duties  were  $4,730,- 
000.  In  whatever  way  considered,  the  tariff  slirinks 
into  insignificance  beside  the  great  problem  of  the  liquor 
traffic.  The  simple  stoppage  of  the  liquor  traffic  would 
create  an  immediate  demand  for  American  wool  heavily 
in  excess  of  the  entire  foreign  importation.  Tliere  is 
more  money  in  temperance  than  there  is  in  tariff. 

Then,  by  spending  $96,000,000  for  cotton  goods,  there 
would  be  consumed  375, 000,000  pounds,  costing $43,000,- 
000.  The  South,  which  still  feels  poor  from  the  great 
war,  what  does  she  say  to  getting  an  additional  $43,000,- 
000  for  cotton  ?     She  can  get  it  by  Prohibition. 

There  is  one  point  in  regard  to  which  farmers  need  to 
be  especially  on  their  guard.  The  Brewers'  Association, 
at  their  late  meeting,  decided  to 


You  may  expect  now  all  manner  of  encomiums  on  cider. 
You  will  find  in  your  papers,  most  likely,  very  pleas- 
ant stories,  in  which  the  bluff  old  farmer  treats  his 
guests  with  cider  from  the  big  pitcher,  and  grows  genial 
and  mellow  in  the  process  ;  in  which  shy  lovers  sip  it 
together  ;  in  which  little  children,  in  the  briglit  sunshine 
and  sweetness  of  the  autumn  fields,  bring  their  tin  cups 
and  catch  the  new  cider  as  it  runs  from  the  press  :  and 


372  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

the  *'  barefoot  boj"  of  Whittier's  poem  has  a  delight- 
some time  sucking  it  through  a  straw.  Wherever  jou 
find  these  things,  just  know  the  brewers'  trade-mark  is 
on  them.  However  good  the  paper  in  which  they  ap- 
pear, the  sly,  stealthy  hand  of  the  liquor  traflBc  is  behind 
them.  Especially  the  patent  insides  are  open  to  this 
kind  of  thing,  where  it  only  needs  to  make  a  contract 
with  one  man  in  Chicago  or  Cincinnati,  and  have  the 
matter  sent  ready  printed  to  thousands  of  country  papers, 
many  of  whose  editors  will  never  look  at  what  it  con- 
tains. You  may  expect  casual  editorial  remarks  on  the 
intolerance  of  Prohibitionists,  who  would  even  prohibit 
the  farmer  from  making  a  little  cider,  and  the  good 
writer  will  lament  their  narrowness  and  bigotry,  which 
alone  keeps  him  from  joining  with  them.  And  if  you 
could  see  the  writer,  you  would  see  that  he  is  already 
carrying  around  about  fifty  pounds  of  protuberant  beer, 
and  writing  this  delicate  moral  squib  to  get  money  from 
the  Brewers'  Association  to  buy  more.  Just  say  about 
all  those  things,  *^  To  work  the  cider  racket  on  the 
farmers. ' ' 

Then  the  question  arises,  Why  do  the  brewers  want  to 
boom  cider  ?  It  would  seem  that  they  would  rather  dis- 
courage it  as  competing  with  beer.  They  do  not  sell 
cider.  Why  do  they  wish  to  promote  the  cider  inter- 
est ?  There  is  some  cat  under  that  meal.  What  is  it  ? 
Well,  according  to  their  own  resolutions  they  are  **  un- 
alterably opposed  to  Prohibition,  general  and  local." 
The  fanners  are,  however,  generally  favorable  to  Pro- 
hibition. If  they  can  persuade  them  that  Prohibition 
would  prevent  them  from  ever  making  another  drop  of 
cider  they  could  set  a  good  many  against  it,  and  if  they 
can  get  the  farmers  to  vote  against  Prohibition  in  order 


THE   FARMERS.  873 

to  make  cider,  tliey  will  be  free  to  make  and  sell  beer — 
that  is,  the  brewers  kindly  propose  to  make  the  farmer 
a  cat's  paw  to  pull  the  very  hot  chestnut  of  Prohibition 
out  of  the  fire.  We  think  our  farmers  have  too  much 
sense  and  manliness  to  be  manipulated  in  that  way. 

But  it  may  be  as  well  to  give,  that  all  may  know  it, 
the  words  of  that  eminent  jurist,  Judge  Agnew,  to  the 
farmers  of  Pennsylvania  on  this  subject.  One  of  the 
most  valuable  of  his  articles  is  an  appeal  to  the  farmers 
not  to  be  misled  by  the  liquor  men's  claim  that  the  right 
to  manufacture  and  sell  cider  would  be  interfered  with 
by  the  adoption  of  the  Amendment.     He  says  : 

"  The  words  of  the  Amendment  are  :  '  The  manufacture,  sale,  or 
keeping  for  sale,  of  intoxicating  liquor,  to  be  used  as  a  beverage,  is 
hereby  prohibited.' 

••  To  make  cider  is  not  to  manufacture  an  intoxicating  liquor. 
Cider  is  the  mere  juice  of  the  apple,  and  is  not  an  intoxicant  when 
first  made.  As  well  might  the  eating  of  apples  be  forbidden.  It  re- 
quires fermentation  to  produce  alcohol,  the  intoxicating  principle 
of  hard  cider.  Every  farmer  knows  he  does  not  make  hard  cider. 
It  must  stand  several  weeks  before  it  becomes  hard,  and  the  next 
process  is  the  acetous  fermentation  which  makes  it  vinegar. 

"  Then  look  at  the  absurdity  of  compelling  the  constable  to  visit 
all  the  farmers  in  his  township  to  find  out  whether  the  owners  have 
made  cider.  But  if  pressing  out  the  juice  of  apples  is  manufactur- 
ing an  intoxicating  liquor,  the  cider-mill  is  as  necessary  to  be  re- 
turned  as  a  distillery  or  a  brewery.  Buch  is  the  absurdity  the  op- 
ponents of  a  valuable  reform  are  reduced  to  in  order  to  defame  it 
and  carry  off  votes. 

"  It  is  to  be  hoped  no  fanner  who  has  an  apple  orchard  will  suffer 
himself  to  be  imposed  upon  by  the  silly  assertion  that  cider  is 
within  the  Amendment  until  it  has  undergone  fermentation  and 
become  hard.  He  can  make  all  the  cider  he  pleases,  and  sell  it  be- 
fore it  has  reached  the  point  when  it  becomes  intoxicating  ;  or  he 
may  keep  it  until  it  becomes  vinegar,  and  then  sell  it. 

"Of  course,  the  man  who  sells  or  keeps  for  sale  hard  cider,  as  a 
beverage,   will  come  within  the  Amendment.     But  we  presume  no 


3T-i  ECONOMICS   OF   PKOHIBITIOX. 

farmer  wishes  or  intends  to  do  this.  It  is  not  necessary  because  he 
makes  cider  to  do  it,  for  then  he  wonld  voluntarily  incur  the  Pro- 
hibition. All  farmers  have  to  do  is  to  follow  the  business  of  their 
farms  as  heretofore,  and  not  to  turn  themselves  into  bar-keepers  or 
sellers  of  intoxicating  drinks.  The  juice  of  the  apple,  like  the  juice 
of  the  grape,  is  harmless  when,  pressed.  It  is  only  when  fermenta- 
tion has  taken  place  one  becomes /larci  and  the  other  becomes  wine," 

Many  farmers  will  answer  :  "  Oh,  it's  easy  enough  to 
keep  cider  from  getting  hard.  Just  put  in  a  little 
salicylic  acid." 

But  do  you  know  the  effect  of  that  ?  Wood's  ''  Ther- 
apeutics," one  of  the  foremost  medical  authorities,  speaks 
as  follows,  p.  621  : 

"Salicylic  acid  has  been  used  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the 
preparation  of  beer  and  wine.  .  .  .  On  February  7th,  1881,  the 
French  Government  interdicted  this  use,  and  in  1885  a  commission 
appointed  by  the  Academy  of  Medicine  of  Paris,  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  Minister  of  Agriculture,  reported  (Boll.  Acad.  M6d.,  vol.  xvi., 
1886)  that  it  is  proved  that  the  prolonged  employment  of  even  very 
small  amounts  of  salicylic  acid  is  dangerous,  and  that  in  susceptible 
iudividuals,  and  especially  in  aged  persons,  it  is  apt  to  cause  dis- 
orders of  digestion  and  disease  of  the  kidneys." 

**  But  if  we  don't  use  that,  the  cider  will  get  hard. 
What  shall  we  do  ?"  Do  just  what  you  would  with  any 
other  alcoholic  liquor.  Let  it  alone.  Hard  cider  con- 
tains from  4  to  10  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  Beer  contains 
2  to  6  per  cent.*     The  reason  for  giving  up  one  is  a 


*  Cider  has  a  larger  per  cent,  of  alcohol  than  lager  beer,  strong 
beer,  porter,  or  ale.  The  eminent  State  Assayer  of  Massachusetts, 
Dr.  Hayes,  has  furnished  us  with  the  following  table  : 

*•  Lager  beer  has  from  2^  to  3^  per  cent,  of  alcohol. 

"  Strong  beer  is  variable,  but  has  a  larger  per  cent,  of  alcohol  than 
lager  beer. 

"  Porter  has  from  4  to  7  per  cent,  of  alcohol. 

"  Oolden  alo  has  bat  B-^  P«r  c«nt.  of  alcohol. 


THE   I'ARMERii.  375 

reason  for  giving  up  the  otlier.  The  alcohol  habit  is 
progressive  and  hereditary.  There  is  a  constant  demand 
for  a  larger  and  larger  amount.  Where  boys  are  brought 
up  to  drink  cider,  which,  after  the  first  few  weeks,  con- 
tains a  considerable  quantity  of  alcohol,  where  they  in- 
herit the  taste  for  it  from  parents  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  using  it,  there  will  be  an  alcoholic  demand  in  their 
systems.  When  they  go  to  the  city,  where  they  cannot 
get  cider  readily,  they  will  be  pretty  sure  to  substitute 
beer.  Then  comes  drunkenness  with  all  its  woes.  Which 
is  worth  the  most,  a  hearty,  happy,  clean,  temperate 
boy,  safe  anywhere,  or  a  little  cider  ? 

But  cider  is  capable  of  doing  the  intemperate  business 
very  well  on  its  own  account.  Speaking  of  it  one  day 
in  a  store,  a  man  who  makes  no  pretence  to  temperance 


"  Cider  has  from  4  to  10  per  cent,  of  alcohol. 

*•  Also,  4-1%  per  cent,  of  the  '  absolute  alcohol '  in  cider  is  equal  to 
10  per  cent,  of  rum—  that  is,  ten  glasses  of  cider  are  equal  to  one 
glass  of  rum." 

It  appears  from  this  analysis  that  cider  has  a  larger  per  cent,  of 
alcohol  than  either  of  the  other  liquors  named,  and  hence  must  be 
more  intoxicating. 

We  learn  from  Brande's  celebrated  "  table,  showing  the  proportion 
of  alcohol  in  distilled  and  fermented  liquors,"  that, 

Cider,  highest  average,  is 9.37  per  cent. 

••      lowest  "         *♦ 5.21    " 

This  table  was  prepared  many  years  ago. 

From  Johnston's  "  Chemistry  of  Common  Life"  (Appleton's  edi- 
tion, "vol.  i.,  p.  2G2),  we  extract  the  following  : 

"Amid  these  differences  in  quality,  however,  there  are  certain 
general  chemical  characters  in  which  all  ciders  agree.  They  contain 
little  extractive  or  solid  nutritious  matter.  No  bitter  or  narcotic 
ingredient  has  been  added  to  them.  They  contain,  on  un  average, 
about  nine  per  cent,  of  alcohol— thus  resembling  in  strength  the  common 
hock,  the  weaker  champagnes,  and  our  strongest  English  ales. " — From 
'•  Cider  in  the  Pledge,"  Xalional  Temperance  Society. 


376  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION^. 

came  in,  and  on  being  appealed  to,  said  :  "  Well,  cider 
makes  the  meanest  drunk  of  any  kind  of  liquor.  I've 
been  drunk  on  all  of  'em,  and  it's  worse  than  beer  or 
whiskey  any  day."  The  wife  of  an  intemperate  hus- 
band, telling  her  story,  said  :  ^*  When  my  husband  would 
get  drunk  on  whiskey  he  would  go  to  bed  and  sleep  it 
off,  and  the  worst  of  it  would  be  over  next  morning. 
But  when  he  got  drunk  on  cider,  he  would  be  worse  the 
/  next  afternoon  than  he  was  at  the  time." 
^  The  general  testimony  is  that  cider  has  a  peculiar  effect 
upon  the  temper,  producing  a  kind  of  chronic  savage- 
ness  different  from  the  effect  of  any  other  kind  of  liquor. 
The  farmer  who  drinks  such  a  beverage  is  doing  a  dam- 
age to  himself.  Who  shall  say  how  many  country  homes 
have  been  made  wretched,  wives  made  dreary  and  sad 
by  constant  surliness,  boys  and  girls  driven  off  to  the  city 
because  home  was  so  hateful,  simply  by  chronic  drench- 
ing with  this  *' meanest"  of  intoxicants  ?  It's  hardly  a 
thing  worth  fighting  for  for  one's  own  use.  But  to  sell 
it  is  to  do  a  positive  damage  to  the  community.  Cer- 
tainly Judge  Agnew  is  right  when  he  says,  ''  Farmers 
should  not  turn  themselves  into  barkeepers  or  sellers  of 
intoxicating  drinks."  If  the  farmer  who  even  likes  a 
little  hard  cider  can,  by  giving  that  up,  stop  the  selling 
of  whiskey  and  beer,  with  their  uncounted  damage  and 
woe,  in  the  cities  and  towns,  that  will  be  the  best  invest- 
ment he  ever  made  ;  for  it  will  stop  the  spoiling  of  Jiis 
market  by  the  drinks  that  make  other  people  too  poor  to 
buy  his  grain  and  wool.  Better  buy  or  raise  an  extra 
number  of  hogs  to  eat  his  surplus  apples  than  to  keep 
open  the  great  floodgates  of  pauperism  in  ten  thousand 
Baloous  to  make  hogs  of  men — his  own  sons,  perhaps, 
among  them.     To  the  credit  and  honor  of  the  farmers 


THE    FARMERS.  377 

be  it  said,  they  have  generally  had  virtue  and  intelligence 
to  see  this,  and  in  all  prohibitory  contests  they  have  ^y 
been  the  surest  and  steadiest  supporters  of  Prohibition, 
as  now  so  grandly  in  the  two  Dakotas.  There's  no 
money  in  the  liquor  traffic,  except  what  the  farmer  loses 
and  the  saloon-keeper  gets.  Let  the  sale  of  liquor  be 
stopped  and  the  drunkard  and  his  family  be  clothed  and 
fed,  and  the  farmer  will  get  the  money — and  money  that 
has  no  curse  upon  it. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE    HOME. 

**  The  intemperate  man,  who  has  no  resource  but  his  labor,  experi- 
ments upon  his  children  to  find  the  minimum  of  possible  subsist- 
ence."— Horace  Mann. 

"The  child  ragged  and  ill-used  is  ever  the  drunhard's  child. 
Education,  clothing,  food,  home  care — all  are  swallowed  down  with 
the  drink,  and  the  poor  child  is  sent  out  with  curses  and  threats  to 
force  sales  on  a  compassionate  public,  instead  of  being  folded  at 
home  in  the  arms  of  parental  love." — The  Alliance  News. 

*'  Intemperance  is  the  deadliest  enemy  of  the  home. 
Its  first  action  is  to  take  the  man  away  from  his  dear 
ones.  If  a  busy  man,  he  commonly  leaves  home  early 
in  the  morning,  seeing  little  of  wife  and  children  in  the 
hurry  before  departure.  Perhaps  he  does  not  return  at 
noon,  or  if  ho  does,  it  is  only  for  a  hasty  lunch.  If  he 
is  to  have  any  happy  social  life  with  wife  and  cliildren, 
it  must  be  in  the  evening.  If  that  time  is  given  to  the 
saloon  he  becomes  a  stranger  to  his  family.  He  does 
not  know  his  wife's  cares  and  hopes,  nor  even  the  ful- 
ness of  her  love,  because  she  has  no  opportunity  for  its 
free  expression.  The  few  brief  moments  of  conversa- 
tion are  almost  wholly  given  to  the  crowding  necessities 
of  life.  Then,  to  a  woman  who  is  compelled  for  the 
most  part  to  live  a  secluded  home-life,  it  is  disappointing 
to  the  last  degree — it  is  even  heart-breaking — to  have 
the  one  to  whom  she  has  given  her  love  and  her  life 
leave  her  in  the  little  time  they  might  be  together  for 


TJii:  iiuMK.  379 

other  society  which  he  prefers  to  her  own.  And  such 
society  !  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  she  is  not  clieer- 
ful  and  hopeful,  and  if  she  finds  it  hard  to  show  much 
tender  affection  in  the  face  of  such  neglect.  It  is  not 
surprising  if  she  finds  little  encouragement  to  adorn  her 
home  or  beautify  her  person,  or  give  the  little  touches 
that  make  children  winsome,  for  one  who  will  hurry 
away  from  it  all  as  soon  as  he  can  get  through  eating. 

Still,  all  this,  hard  as  it  is,  mi^ht  be  endurable  if  the 
MAN  at  last  came  home.  But  who  comes  home  ?  Is  it 
the  man  who  walked  into  her  girlish  dreams,  who  was 
careful  in  dress,  gentle  and  noble  in  manner  for  her  dear 
sake  ?  No,  a  foul,  imbruted  being,  from  whom  she 
would  have  tied  with  a  shriek  if  he  had  suddenly  ap- 
peared at  her  father's  house.  The  man  from  whom 
every  decent  man  has  shrunk  away  on  the  street  as  he 
came  home  is  the  man  this  wife  is  to  love  and  cherish. 

When  we  think  of  the  unutterable  disgust  a  sober  man 
— who  is  only  a  man — feels  for  a  drunkard  ;  how  he 
loathes  the  flushed  face,  the  foetid  breath,  the  incoherent 
speech,  and  all  the  soil  and  coarseness  of  intoxication, 
and  then  think  of  putting  that  being  beside  a  woman 
with  all  the  delicacy  of  feeling  of  her  sex,  in  the  privacy 
of  home,  the  loneliness  of  night,  and  the  association  of 
marriage,  it  is  a  wonder  that  every  wife  who  has  this  to 
bear  does  not  straightway  become  a  maniac. 

Then  the  saloon  devours  the  money  on  whose  wise  ex- 
penditure much  of  the  happiness  of  home  depends.  If 
the  wife  has  toiled  at  the  wash-tub  till  every  muscle  aches 
and  her  whole  being  is  weary,  it  is  simply  exasperating 
to  have  her  husband  leave  her  and  go  to  spend  in  one 
hour  in  the  saloon  the  money  that  would  have  paid  for 
needed  help. 


380  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITION-. 

Clothes  wear  out.  No  washing  and  no  mending  cau 
keep  old  things  forever  neat.  The  rags  will  come,  and 
when  they  come  those  who  wear  them  will  look  shabby. 
Not  even  cleanliness  can  be  fully  maintained  when  there 
is  a  lack  of  changes  and  a  lack  of  towels,  and  these  cost 
money.  The  saloon  cuts  off  the  supply.  Fuel  and  light 
cost  money.  A  smouldering  fire  and  a  dim  lamp  cannot 
make  a  cheery  room.  The  saloon  puts  the  fire  that 
should  be  in  the  grate  into  the  man's  stomach.  The 
rations  grow  short.  The  children  worry,  and  the  wife 
is  spiritless  from  exhaustion.  The  man  looks  over  the 
bare  table  and  grumbles,  '^  There's  no  comfort  at  home." 
Then  he  claims  that  he  is  driven  to  the  saloon  because 
it  is  so  bright  and  his  home  so  wretched,  and  authors, 
moralists,  and  divines  support  him  in  the  claim.  This 
is  putting  effect  for  cause.  The  fact  is,  that  if  we  could 
put  out  the  saloon  lights  and  fires — every  one — empty 
the  barrels,  smasli  the  crockery,  and  make  the  saloon 
dark  as  the  traffic  is,  those  homes  would  soon  grow 
bright.  Dickens  represents  one  of  his  wretched  char- 
acters showing  a  cup  of  foul  water  to  a  visitor,  and  say- 
ing :  *'  If  you  had  such  water,  wouldn't  you  drink  gin  ?" 
Very  touching  I  Bid  if  that  man  had  been  willing  to 
pay  for  water  the  price  of  his  gin^  he  could  have  had 
the  clearest  ice-water  to  drink.  The  saloon  becomes 
bright  by  making  the  homes  dark.  Science  tells  us  that 
when  you  light  your  fire  of  wood  or  coal,  and  the  ruddy 
flame  springs  up  and  fills  the  room  with  its  glow,  you 
are  simply  basking  in  the  iniprisoned  sunlight  of  long 
ago.  So  when  the  saloon  throws  its  light  across  the 
highway,  a  blaze  of  splendor,  you  simply  see  concen- 
trated into  one  dazzling  focus  the  light  that  it  has  stolen 
from  scores  of  darkened  homes.     Yet  the  more  of  every 


tin:  home.  381 

good  it  Slicks  out  of  a  man's  life,  and  the  more  hope, 
lessly  wretched  he  becomes,  the  fairer  tlie  saloon  seems 
hy  contrast,  till  lie  grows  to  esteeming  his  destroyer  his 
only  refuge  and  hope.  The  lower  the  8ah)on  casts  him 
down,  the  more  necessary  the  saloon  becomes  to  him. 
But  his  wife  and  children  cannot  flee  to  its  glare  and 
oblivion.  Our  civilization  will  not  yet  tolerate  that. 
They  must  stay  in  the  desolated  home.  Now  if  this 
were  honest  poverty,  forced  upon  them  by  hard  neces- 
sity, which  the  man  was  doing  all  he  could  to  share  and 
brighten,  a  true  wife  could  rally  all  '*  the  beauty  and 
truth  of  woman's  devotion"  to  bear  up  and  sustain  her 
husband  amid  it  all.  But  when  she  knows  that  the  hus- 
band who  brought  her  to  it  has  deserted  her  in  the  midst 
of  it  for  a  selfish  and  swinish  delight  which  will  sink 
him — and  them — lower  yet,  how  does  she  endure  it  ? 

In  answer  to  those  who  claim  that  woman  might  abol- 
ish intemperance  by  making  home  happy,  there  is  a  cer- 
tain concession  to  be  made.  If  a  girl  marries  with  no 
skill  for  the  life  of  home  and  no  heart  for  its  duties,  she 
may  have  to  reap  in  terrible  disaster  the  fruit  of  her  own 
criminal  incompetency.  No  man  can  do  a  hard  day's 
work  on  one  kind  of  fancy  cake.  He  must  live  upon 
the  homely  food,  and  it  must  be  such  that  he  can  live 
upon  it.  If  a  man  is  not  fed  at  his  own  table,  the  temp- 
tation to  drink  in  the  saloon  is  terribly  reinforced.  The 
work  must  be  done.  It  cannot  stop.  Others  are  wait- 
ing on  his  hand  or  brain.  He  is  faint  and  weary  when 
he  needs  to  be  strong.  His  companions  say  :  **  Take  a 
drink  and  it  will  make  you  feel  better."  So  it  does, 
with  its  deceptive  cheer,  enabling  him  to  draw  ruinously 
on  the  vital  forces  of  the  system  for  the  strength  which 
should  have  been  supplied  by  timely  and  nutritious  food. 


38*^  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

Thus  the  alcohol  habit  may  easily  become  fixed,  the  man 
really  thinking  it  a  necessity,  and  really  believing  that 
it  helps  him  till  he  finds  too  late  that  it  has  destroyed 
J  him.  No  woman  should  ever  marry  till  she  has  learned 
the  trade  of  home-making.  She  should  not  have  to 
practise  all  her  crude  experiments  on  her  husband,  lest 
she  ruin  the  man  while  she  is  learning  the  trade. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  answered  that  the 
majority  of  drinking  men  whom  we  have  known  have 
gone  down  from  homes  where  wise,  loving,  and  devoted 
wives  had  done  all  that  womanly  skill  need  do  for  hap- 
piness. This  has  been  clearly  proved  when  the  husband 
has  reformed.  Always,  then,  without  an  exception  that 
we  remember,  his  home  has  blossomed  out  in  beauty  and 
cheer  as  soon  as  he  gave  his  wife  the  time  and  money 
which  he  had  been  giving  to  the  saloon. 
J  It  is  doubtful  if  the  man  ever  lived  who  would  endure 
from  a  drunken  wife  the  half  of  what  thousands  of 
women  silently  and  uncomplainingly  endure  from 
drunken  husbands,  shutting  in  their  own  hearts  their 
bitter  misery  ;  teaching  their  children  to  pity  the  father 
whom  they  cannot  honor  ;  refusing  to  testify  against 
the  man  who  has  beggared  their  home  and  blasted  their 
hopes,  when  at  length  he  has  bruised  their  bodies  and 
hazarded  their  lives  ;  submitting  to  be  robbed  over  and 
over  again  of  their  hard  earnings  to  minister  to  his 
further  degradation  ;  going  hungry  and  thirsty,  and  see- 
ing their  children  ragged  and  starving — all  for  the  young 
love  and  early  hope  that  were  once  so  sweet.  It  passes 
all  that  man's  heart  knows  of  patience  and  devotion. 

We  saw  a  case  once  on  an  ocean  steamship  where  such 
a  man  was  dragged  up  to  the  captain  by  the  boatswain, 
while  the  poor  wife,  whose  screams  had  been  echoing 


THK   HOME.  383 

from  the  steerage,  followed  fast  after,  white  and  faint. 
The  captain,  a  man  of  many  battles,  laid  a  hand  on  the 
wretch's  collar,  with  his  other  hand  clenched,  and  light- 
ning in  his  eye,  when  the  wife,  amid  all  that  crowd  of 
men,  threw  herself  between,  one  arm  around  the  hus- 
band's neck,  the  other  hand  on  the  captain's  arm,  plead- 
ing, *^  Oh,  captain,  dear,  forgive  him  this  once  I"  The 
captain  tried  to  hold  the  sternness  of  his  face,  but  his 
grasp  relaxed  and  he  only  said  :  '^  If  this  happens  again, 
she  sha'n't  save  you."  Then  the  pitying  woman  drew 
the  brutal  husband  off  to  the  steerage,  clinging  to  him 
all  the  way,  and  the  men  moved  away  silently,  too 
deeply  touched  to  talk  of  the  scene  to  each  other. 

But  this  contrast  will  not  always  last.  Woman  can 
inherit  the  appetite  from  a  drunken  father.  She  can  be 
reduced  to  a  habit  of  wretchedness  where,  for  her,  too, 
the  brilliant,  gilded  saloon  will  have  irresistible  fascina- 
tion. Then,  what  language  can  tell  the  horror  of  the 
curse  ? 

The  work  is  already  begun.  Our  people  are  tending 
toward  that  deepest  depth  and  most  hopeless  ruin — the 
drunkenness  of  woman.  The  following  extract  is  taken 
from  the  Cleveland  Leader^  August  14th,  1889. 

FEMALE   WINESKINS. 
A  Boom  fob  theib  Accommodation  in  Euclid  Aventte, 


MBS.   PRATHEB's  CHABGK. 

8h»  i/jcw  Eorrijied  at  Put-in-My  to  see  Drunken  Mothers  Sleeping  in  the 

Grass. 


Boys  giTen  Wine  by  the  Bottle— Two  Girls  who  made  a  Show  of 
Themselves. 


The  regular  monthly  business  meeting  of  the  Non -Partisan  Worn- 


384  ECONOMICS   OF    I'KOIIIBITIOX. 

an's  Christian  Temperance  Union,   in  their  pleasant  room  at  tht 
Nottingham  Block  yesterday  afternoon,  was  well  attended. 

******♦♦ 

Mrs,  Prather  said  that  she  went  to  Put-in-Bay  a  few  days  ago  on  a 
boat  which  carried  twenty-five  hundred  excursionists.  A  boat  from 
Detroit  brought  two  thousand,  and  boats  from  other  places  swelled 
the  number.  She  said  that  she  was  horrified,  for  she  never  saw  so 
much  drinking  in  her  life  before.  She  stated  that  she  saw  women 
who  drank  wine  and  then  went  to  sleep  on  the  grass,  leaving  their 
young  children  uncared  for.  Mrs.  Prather  said  that  she  was  particu- 
larly troubled  about  two  young  girls  who  emptied  a  bottle  of  wine 
on  the  boat.  "I  also  saw  young  boys,"  she  continued,  "carrying 
bottles  of  wine  down  to  the  boat.  These  men  certainly  know  that 
they  must  not  sell  to  minors.  They  advertise  that  (he  wine  is  not 
intoxicating,  but  I  never  saw  so  many  drunken  people." 

Miss  Ingersoll  said  that  Mrs.  Prather's  was  the  third  report  of  the 
same  kind  that  she  had  heard  from  Put-in-Bay  this  season. 

Mrs.  Prather  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  Union  should  protest 
against  drinking  at  the  Bay,  and  also  against  the  selling  of  intoxi- 
cants to  boys.  Mrs.  Phinney  said  that  the  most  lamentable  fact  was 
that  the  women  drank  wine  and  beer.  "  Yet,"  she  said,  **  Kate 
Field  recommended  the  use  of  California  wine,  and  if  the  people 
cannot  get  that  I  presume  that  they  are  satisfied  with  what  they  oan 
get  at  Put-in-Bay." 

Mrs.  Prather  said  that  she  had  been  informed  that  there  was 

A  WINE-EOOM   IN   EUCLID   AVENUE 

which  was  conducted  for  the  accommodation  of  women. 

Another  issue  of  the  same  paper  gives  the  following  : 
"DARKENED  STALLS." 


The  Mayob  Gives  his  Opinion  about  Two 


BZZB  OABDENS  ON  SUMMIT  BTBEET. 


He  says  that  they  are  One  of  the  Worst  Iniquities  in  the  City. 


At  last  night's  meeting  of  the  Police  Board,  the  Mayor  relieved  his 
mind  freely  of   some   very   pungent  ideas  concerning  two   i»alooii^ 


THE    HOME,  385 

gardens.  The  subject  was  brought  up  by  the  application  of  C.  H. 
Kohler  for  a  music  permit  for  Lake  View  Pavilion,  at  No.  104  Sum- 
mit Street. 

"  I  have  something  to  say  on  this  subject,"  said  the  Mayor.  "  I 
recently  visited  the  Bellevue  Garden,  at  the  corner  of  Erie  and 
Summit  Streets,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  they  are  100 
per  cent,  worse  than  houses  of  ill-fAme,  It  is  one  of  the  worst  insti- 
tutions in  the  city.  I  found  the  stalls  poorly  lighted,  and  I  was  un- 
able to  clearly  see  tho  men  and  women  who  were  inside  of  them. 
What  I  saw  there  was  worse  than  occurs  commonly  in  houses  of 
ill-repute.  I  saw  girls  there  who  were  only  fourteen,  fifteen,  and 
sixteen  years  old.  Perhaps  they  took  their  first  drinks  there,  and 
then  they  were  ruined.  It  is  high  time  that  the  police  regulated 
these  places  if  they  have  tho  proper  authority.  And  wo  can  do  noth- 
ing better  than  close  these  places  completely.  And  I  say  to  you, 
sir,"  turning  around  to  Kohler,  who  was  standing  behind  him, 
"  that  you  are  doing  the  greatest  possible  damage  to  the  citizens  of 
Cleveland." 

The  home  must  banish  the  wine  sauces,  jelh'es,  etc.,  ^ 
which  the  fashionable  cook-books — even  some  issued  by 
the  ^'  Ladies'  Aid  Societies"  of  churclies — still  provide 
for.  Their  only  possible  use  can  be  to  minister  to  the 
alcoholic  appetite.  But  that  appetite  is  not  soothed,  but 
whetted  by  small  doses.  The  appetite  is  absolutely,  in- 
satiable, and  when  aroused  is  to  be  satisfied  only  by 
enough  to  master  the  nervous  system,  requirino^  for  that 
an  ever-increasing  quantity.  Home  must  not  be  made  a 
place  of  temptation.  Ilow  will  you  convince  a  young 
man  at  college  that  there  is  any  harm  in  the  little  wine 
in  a  tiny  crystal  glass  which  holds  scarcely  more  than  he 
would  get  in  a  sauce  at  his  mother's  table  ?  Of  course, 
those  who  clioose  thus  to  sow  the  wind  cannot  be  pre- 
vented by  any  warnings  ;  nor  if  they  chance  to  reap  tho 
whirlwind  can  that  be  stopped  by  any  consolations.  If 
complete  Prohibition  should  stop  the  culinary  use  of 
alcohol,  the  loss  to  taste  and  fancy  would  be  very  slight, 


386  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

while  the  gain  to  civilization  and  home  happiness  would 
be  incalculable.  We  do  not  hear  any  outcry  from  the 
kitchens  of  Kansas.  We  do  not  learn  of  any  defective 
nutrition  among  her  people,  who  are  exporting  the  food 
supply  of  a  nation. 

In  another  point  social  usages  often  sin,  not  only 
against  morality,  but  against  etiquette.  The  young 
man,  principled  against  liquor  drinking,  is  coaxed  by 
fascinating  women,  besieged  by  brilliant  and  perhaps 
venerable  men  to  drink  with  them,  till  he  feels  it  utter 
incivility  and  rudeness  to  decline.  We  need  not  say 
how  often  those  who  start  him  are  powerless  to  stop 
him.  We  will  not  speak  of  the  moral  side  of  this,  oa 
which  all  eloquence  has  been  expended,  and  which  is 
really  too  plain  to  need  an  argument.  We  wish  to  say, 
v/  it  is  not  good  manners.  If  I  have  a  guest  who  does  not 
like  onions,  I  do  not  press  them  upon  him,  coax  him  or 
taunt  him  until  he  swallows  them  against  his  will  to 
please  me  and  mine.  Still  more  in  a  matter  of  princi- 
ple ;  if  my  guest  is  a  Iloman  Catholic  I  do  not  persuade 
and  badger  him  into  eating  roast  beef  on  Friday.  So 
far  from  it,  if  I  know  his  views,  I  will  not  have  the  ob- 
jectionable dish  on  my  table  when  he  is  present.  I  will 
not  inflict  on  him  the  embarrassment  of  declining. 
When  Friday  comes,  my  Catholic  friend,  or  even  my 
Catholic  servant,  shall  have  fish  or  other  palatable  food 
which  shall  not  raise  the  question  of  singularity.  This 
is  but  true  politeness,  universally  recognized  as  such 
among  all  well-bred  people.  Why,  in  Ileaven's  name, 
should  it  not  apply  when  my  guest's  principle  is  against 
the  fell  destroyer  that  is  cutting  through  all  our  homes, 
high  and  low,  its  wide  swath  of  desolation  and  death  ? 
*'  Society"  most  come  out  from  the  manners  of  the  Dark 


THE    HOME.  387 

Ages,  revise  its  standards  of  politeness,  and  reapply  to 
the  question  of  intoxicants  what  is,  in  all  other  thin;:^, 
recognized  as  the  only  course  becoming  the  true  gentle- 
man or  lady.  So  far  from  its  being  an  offence  for  a 
temperance  man  not  to  drink,  it  is  an  indecorum  for  a 
host  or  hostess  who  knows  his  principles  to  ask  him  to 
do  so,  or  even  to  seem  to  observe  that  he  does  not. 

This  also  is  an  economic  question,  for  the  temperance 
reform  can  never  be  made  complete  at  the  bottom  till  it 
is  recognized  at  the  top.  Those  of  greatest  wealth  and 
influence  and  of  highest  culture  must  set  an  example  of 
goodness  which  those  of  less  advantages  may  wisely  fol- 
low.    '*  He  that  is  greatest,  let  him  be  servant  of  all." 

Alcohol  is  the  destroyer  of  the  home.  Home  must  be 
the  conqueror  of  alcohol  if  it  would  maintain  itself  or 
save  our  civilization. 


J 


CHAPTER  XXIY 

THE   NURSERY. 

"  It  is  the  same  deathless  mother's  love  that  has  knocked  at  the 
doors  of  the  schools  through  State  legislatures,  and  is  to-day  knock- 
ing at  the  door  of  our  national  capitol,  asking  that  the  boys  may  be 
taught.  We  women  lay  down  at  the  cradle  our  youth,  our  beauty, 
our  talents,  anything,  everything,  to  the  little  bit  of  humanity  there. 
We  cannot  help  it.  It  is  God's  providence  for  the  child  ;  and  may 
it  not  likewise  be  God's  providence  for  the  nation  that  has  roused 
the  heart  of  women  and  called  the  deathless  tides  of  mother  love  to 
participate  in  this  great  movement  ?  If  we  save  the  children  to-day 
wo  shall  have  saved  the  nation  to-morrow." — Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt. 

In  strictness  this  subject  might  be  included  in  the  pre- 
vious chapter  on  '*  The  Home,"  but  it  is  of  such  special 
importance  as  to  deserve  a  place  and  title  for  itself.  We 
cannot  adequately  provide  for  the  prosperity  of  nations 
unless  we  study  the  economics  of  the  nursery. 

By  an  inscrutable,  but  most  manifest  law,  everything 
that  vitally  affects  the  constitution  and  mental  and  moral 
character  of  the  parents  is  transmitted  to  the  child. 
This  is  pre-eminently  true  of  the  results  of  alcoholic 
drinks. 

Dr.  E.  Lancer^ux  says  :* 

"  The  person  who  inherits  alcoholism  is  generally  marked  with 
degeneration  particularly  manifested  in  disturbances  of  the  nervous 
functions.  As  an  infant  he  dies  of  convulsions  or  other  nervous 
disorders  ;  if  he  lives  ho  becomes  idiotic  or  imbecile,  and  in  adult 
life  bears  these  special  characteristics  :  the  head  is  small  (tending  to 


♦  Qnoted  by  Gastafson,  "  Foundation  of  Death,"  p.  175. 


thp:  nursery.  389 

miorooephaliam),  his  physiognomy  vacant,  a  nervous  susceptibility, 
more  or  less  accentuated,  a  state  of  nervousness  bordering  on 
hysteria,  convulsions,  epilepsy,  sad  ideas,  melancholia,  hypochon- 
dria—such are  the  effects,  and  these,  with  a  passion  for  alcoholic 
beverages,  an  inclination  to  immorality,  depravity,  and  cynicism, 
are  the  sorrowful  inheritance  which,  unfortunately,  a  great  number 
of  individuals  given  to  drink  bequeath  to  their  children." 

Professor  Sigismund  Jaccoud  says  : 

'*  A  survey  of  the  race  leads  us  to  afi&rm  that  alcoholism  is  one  of 
the  greatest  causes  of  the  depopulation  and  degeneration  of  nations." 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr  speaks  as  follows  : 

*'  Defective  nerve-power  and  an  enfeebled,  debilitated  morale  form 
the  fatal  legacy  of  inebriates  to  their  offspring.  Some  of  the  circle, 
generally  the  daughters,  may  be  nervous  and  hysterical,  are  apt  to 
be  feeble  and  eccentric,  and  to  fall  into  insanity  when  an  unusual 
emergency  takes  place.  That  the  impairment  of  the  bodily  or  mental 
faculties  arises  from  the  intemperance  of  one  or  both  heads  of  the 
family  is  demonstrated  by  the  healthfulness  and  intellectual  vigor 
of  children  born  while  the  parents  were  temperate  contrasted  with 
the  sickliness  and  mental  feebleness  of  their  brothers  and  sisters 
born  after  the  parent  or  parents  became  intemperate.  .  .  .  The 
most  distressing  aspect  of  the  heredity  of  alcohol  is  the  transmitted 
narcotic  or  insatiable  craving  for  drink — the  dipsomania  of  tho  phy- 
sician— which  is  every  day  becoming  more  and  more  prevalent. 
Probably  the  alarming  increase  of  the  alcoholic  heredity  in  Eng- 
land is  owing  in  great  part  to  the  increase  of  female  intemperance 
among  us.  It  is  well  to  state  that  all  the  evils  rei^ulting  from  heredi- 
tary alcoholism  may  be  transmitted  by  parents  who  have  never  been 
noted  for  their  drunkenness.  Long-continued,  habitual  indulgence 
in  intoxicating  drinks  to  an  extent  far  short  of  intoxication  is  not 
cnlysuflficient  to  originate  and  hand  down  a  m«rbid  tendency,  but 
is  much  more  likely  to  do  so  than  even  repeated  dranken  outbreaks 
with  intervals  of  perfect  sobriety  between." 

One  lingering  tradition  of  the  old  faith  in  liquor  as  ay 
universal  remedy  still  persists  in  the  home.     It  lingers 
stubbornly  there,  because  the  matters  it  concerns  are  by 
many  deemed  too  delicate  for  public  discussion,  and  an- 


390  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

cient  errors  are  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  under  the 
veil  of  domestic  privacy.  But  we  are  fast  learning  that 
the  purest  thing  is  truth,  and  that  where  it  is  thought 
modest  to  whisper  an  error,  it  cannot  be  indelicate  to 
speak  out  the  real  facts.  "With  what  science  so  clearly 
teaches  now  of  the  intimate  connection  between  the 
whole  life  of  the  mother  and  the  unborn  infant,  it  is 
manifest  that  all  the  harm  alcohol  can  do  to  adult  hu- 
manity, it  can  do  most  effectually  to  the  delicate  organ- 
ism of  the  forming  being,  if  the  mother  uses  intoxicants 
before  the  birth  of  her  child.  Grant,  if  you  please,  that 
it  may  give  a  pleasant  sense  of  relief  from  some  dis- 
tresses, just  as  a  man  by  getting  partially  intoxicated  will 
be  relieved  of  a  toothache.  The  tooth  is  not  made 
sound,  however.  The  relief  is  simply  the  paralysis  of 
alcohol.  So,  notliing  in  the  mother's  constitution  is  im- 
proved. She  has  gained  not  one  atom  of  nutrition,  not 
one  particle  of  strength,  but  simply  a  momentary  com- 
fort from  the  alcohol-paralysis.  The  influence  of  it 
surely  and  harmfully  strikes  her  child.  Dr.  E.  G.  Figg, 
in  his  *'  Physiological  Operation  of  Alcohol,"  *  relates 
the  results  of  his  observation  in  cases  of  decided  intem- 
perance of  mothers  before  the  birth  of  their  children, 
saying,  in  conclusion  : 

"  What  inference  could  be  drawn  from  the  circumstances,  but 
that  when  the  mother  got  drunk  the  child  got  drunk  ;  when  the 
mother  became  insensible  the  child  became  insensible  ;  and  when 
the  mother  was  collapsed  the  child  was  so  also  ?" 

The  same  must  be  true  in  proportion  of  more  moder- 
ate indulgences.  Surely  no  mother  is  justified,  when 
ample  remedies  for  every  really  diseased  condition  can 


*  Qnstafson,  p.  220. 


THE    XURSERT.  391 

be  obtained  whicli  involve  no  such  consequences,  in  im- 
planting the  seeds  of  alcoholism  in  the  n(?rves  and  brain 
of  her  child,  surely  to  harm  its  structure,  and  perhaps 
to  grow  up  into  an  organism  that  may  break  her  heart 
and  curse  society.  If,  out  of  the  traditions  of  the  past, 
the  dangerous  advice  is  given  even  by  the  beloved  and 
honored,  the  mother  of  to-day  should  have  the  wisdom 
and  independence  to  walk  in  our  day's  clearer  light. 

But  the  nursing  babe  is  more  especially  the  victim  of 
the  dram.  Many  pure,  high-minded,  temperate  mothers 
believe,  and  are  religiously  taught,  that  in  order  to  nurse 
their  children  they  must  take  beer,  ale,  or  other  liquor. 
Dr.  Edmunds  *  makes  an  acute  observation  here.  He 
says  : 

"  Such  mothers  fall  easy  victims  to  circulars  vaunting  the  nourish- 
ing properties  of  '  Hoare's  Stout,'  '  Tanqueray's  Gin,'  or  '  Gilbey's 
Strengthening  Port,'  circulars  which  are  always  backed  up  by  the 
example  and  advice  of  lady  friends,  who  themselves  have  acquired 
the  habit  of  using  these  liquors,  and  icho  view  as  a  reproach  to  them- 
selves the  practice  of  any  other  lady  who  will  n.ot  keep  them  in  coun- 
tenance, as  the  perfection  of  all  moral  and  physical  propriety." 

The  writer  was  once  speaking  with  a  wealthy  farmer 
on  this  subject,  who  said,  with  decided  emphasis  :  ''  My 
wife  always  drank  ale  or  beer  when  she  was  nursing  her 
children."  I  asked:  "Did  you  ever  feed  brewery 
mash  to  your  cows?"  "Yes,  sometimes."  "What 
was. the  effect?"  "Well,  they  gave  more  milk.  But 
there  wasn't  any  butter  in  it.  You  couldn't  make  a 
pound  of  butter  from  it  if  you  churned  all  day."  Said 
I:  "'Would  that  kind  of  milk  be  good  for  a  baby  ?" 
"  I  shouldn't  want  to  try  it,"  he  answered.    There  is  a 


*  Gustafson,  p.  223. 


392  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION". 

boiriely  statement  of  what  medical  science  more  exactly 
teaches. 
«/  One  of  the  most  striking  facts  regarding  the  use  of 
alcohol  is  the  instant  and  desperate  endeavor  of  the 
human  system  to  get  rid  of  it.  Every  excretory  organ 
of  the  body  hastens  to  throw  it  out.  The  familiar  in- 
stance of  this  is  the  breath  of  the  drinker,  which  is  so 
charged  with  alcohol  as  to  fill  the  air  around  him,  the 
lungs  struggling  to  throw  off  the  destructive  agent  at 
every  breath.  But  with  the  nursing  mother  the  alcohol 
finds  a  readier  way  of  escape,  as  it  must  escape  some- 
where or  cause  the  death  of  the  drinker. 

The  eminent  Dr.  James  Edmunds,  in  a  paper  on 
*'  Alcoholic  Drinks  as  an  Article  of  Diet  for  !Nursing 
Mothers,"  says  :* 

"  It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  a  glass  of  spirit  taken 
at  bedtime  by  a  nursing  mother  not  merely  increases  the  flow  of 
milk  during  the  night,  but  causes  the  child  to  sleep  heavily.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  spirit  acts,  not  as  a  purgative,  nor  as  a  diu- 
retic, nor  as  a  diaphoretic,  nor  does  much  of  it  pass  off  by  the  lungs, 
but  it  acts  as  a  lactogogue,  because  the  breasts  are  then  in  a  state 
of  great  activity,  and  form  the  readiest  channel  through  which  the 
mother's  system  can  eliminate  the  alcohol.  In  order  to  efifect  that 
elimination,  tho  breasts  have  to  discharge  a  profuser  quantity  of 
milk  ;  bui  the  increased  quantity  of  milk  is  produced  by  a  mere  addition 
of  alcohol  and  water,  or  it  is  produced  by  impoverishing  and  straining 
the  system  of  the  mother.  In  either  case  the  poisonous  influence  of 
Ihc  alcohol  is  manifested  in  narcotizing  the  child,  and  it  cannot  need 
much  reflection  to  show  that  children  ought  not  to  have  alcohol 
Altered  into  them  as  receptacles  for  matters  which  the  mother's  sys- 
tem finds  it  necessary  to  eliminate.  Probably  nothing  could  be 
worse  than  to  have  the  very  fabric  of  the  child's  tissues  laid  down 
from  alcoholized  blood." 

Living  at  one  time  where  this  system  was  largely  prac- 


*  Quoted  by  Gustafson,  pp.  223,  224. 


THE    XURSEKY.  393 

tised  by  nursing  mothers,  my  observation  was  tliat  their 
fat,  white  babies  were  always  cross,  except  when  thoy 
were  stupid.  That  is  exactly  the  condition  of  a  habitual 
tippler.  Take  care  what  you  say  to  him,  or  how  you 
look  at  him  in  the  morning  before  he  has  had  his  dram, 
or  when  he  has  gone  some  time  without  it.  But  when 
he  has  had  a  ^*  good  drink"  you  may  slap  him  on  the 
shoulder,  and  he's  *' a  good  fellow."  Just  such  transi- 
tions those  babies  went  through.  The  mother  would 
say  :  '^  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do  with  him.  He  is 
BO  cross."  Then  he  would  be  delivered  to  the  nurse  or 
the  long-suffering  sister  to  '^  take  him  out,"  to  worry 
through  the  time  till  he  could  get  from  the  maternal 
fountain  another  dram. 

It  is  awful  to  think  of  a  mother  running  a  saloon  for 
her  babe  in  her  own  breast. 

High  up  in  the  social  scale  the  danger  is  often  more 
serious  than  among  the  mid41e  class.  Fashion  and 
wealth  delegate  the  child's  nourishment  to  the  ''  wet 
nurse,"  who  probably  has  not  the  self-control  and  high 
self-respect  that  the  cultured  mother  would  have.  She 
knows  how  to  secure  a  heavy  sleep  for  herself  and  the 
child  by  night,  and  uses  enough  to  accomplish  the  pur- 
pose. 

Of  the  effects  of  this  course  upon  the  child,  Dr.  Ed- 
munds says  : 

*'  Infants  nursed  by  mothers  who  drink  much  beer  become  ffttter 
than  usual,  aud  to  an  untrained  eye  sometimes  appear  as  '  magnifi- 
cent children.'  Bat  the  fatness  of  such  children  is  not  a  recom- 
mendation to  the  more  knowing  observer  ;  they  are  exceedingly 
Ijrone  to  die  of  inflammation  of  the  chest  (bronchitis)  after  a  very 
few  days'  illness  from  an  ordinary  cold.  They  die  very  much  more 
frequently  than  other  children  of  convulsions  and  diarrhoea  while 
cutting  their  teeth,  and  they  are  very  liable  to  die  of  scrofulous  in- 


394  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

flammation  of  the  membranes  of  the  brain,  commonly  called  *  water 
on  the  brain,'  while  their  childhood  of  ten  presents  a  painful  contrast 
— in  the  way  of  crooked  legs  and  stnnted  or  ill-shapen  figure — to 
the  *  magnificent  and  promising  appearance  of  their  infancy. '  " 

There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  a  constitutional 
craving  for  alcohol  is  often  imbibed  bj  such  babes  dur- 
ing this  impressible  forming  time  through  the  influence 
of  what  Mr.  Gustafson  calls  "  lacteal  heredity,"  of  which 
he  says  :  *''  Virtues,  vices,  physical  characteristics,  and 
the  effects  of  habits  indulged  in  during  lactation  can  be 
transmitted  to  the  child."  This  may  be  one  explanation 
of  the  sudden  fall  into  intemperate  habits  of  the  children 
of  temperate  and  excellent  people.  The  child  was 
nursed  into  intemperance  in  babyhood. 

It  cannot  be  too  strongly  said  that  the  best  and  the 
only  safe  nourishment  the  mother  or  nurse  can  give  her 
babe  is  that  which  comes  from  substantial  food  well 
digested  by  a  healthy  organism.  When  that  fails,  it  is 
by  all  means  safest  to  resort  to  the  milk  of  an  honest 
cow,  who  does  not  use  intoxicants.  This  is  good  for  the 
mother,  too.  A  very  accomplished  physician  told  us 
this  anecdote.  **  I  was  attending,"  he  said,  "  a  young 
mother  with  her  first  child.  She  said  to  me  :  *  I  sup- 
pose now,  doctor,  I  shall  have  to  drink  beer.'  *  What 
for  ? '  I  answered.  *  Why,  to  have  milk  for  my  baby.' 
Said  I  :  '  Why  don't  you  drink  milk  ?  '  She  laughed, 
and  asked  with  surprise  :  ^  Why,  would  that  do  it  ? ' 
*  Of  course  it  would,'  I  replied,  '  and  in  the  surest  and 
quickest  way.  Good  milk  contains  all  the  constituents 
of  human  life,  and  while  cow's  milk  would  be  hkely  to 
be  too  strong  for  a  tender  infant,  after  it  has  passed 
through  the  mother's  veins  it  is  mingled  in  just  the 
right  proportions  to  give  the  child  strength  and  health. 


THE    XURSEEY.  395 

It  will  be  better  for  you,  too.'     She  followed  riiy  advice, 
and  both  herself  and  her  baby  prospered.' ' 

Of  the  effects  of  beer-drinking  on  the  mother,  Dr. 
Edmunds  says  :* 

*•  I  have  observed  the  following  facts  :  The  mothers  frequently 
make  flesh,  and  even  become  corpulent  ;  often,  however,  at  the 
Bame  time  they  get  pale,  and  where  they  are  not  constitutionally 
robust  in  fibre  they  become  inactive,  short-breathed,  coarse-com- 
plexioned,  nervous,  and  irritable,  and  suffer  from  weakness  of  the 
heart  and  a  long  train  of  symptoms  which  are  more  or  less  severe 
according  to  the  constitution  of  the  mother  and  the  quantity  of 
alcohol  she  imbibes.  The  young  mother  prematurely  loses  the  bloom 
and  beauty  of  youth.  Often  it  is  quite  startling  to  meet  some  lady 
who,  during  an  interval  of  two  years,  has  been  transformed  from  a 
sprightly  and  charming  young  woman  into  an  uninteresting,  coarse- 
looking  matron.  She  has  nursed  her  first  infant  for  twelve  months. 
With  a  pure  and  rational  diet  she  would  simply  have  acquired  a 
more  dignified  and  womanly  bearing,  with  a  robuster  gentleness  of 
manner  ;  but  a  liberal  supply  of  '  nourishing  '  stout,  etc.,  was  adopted 
and  imbibed  regularly,  in  order  to  supply  her  infant  with  '  milk.* 
The  presence  of  a  nerveless  apathy,  or  unintelligent  irritability, 
afterward  proved  that  a  liberal  supply  of  stimulants  was  required  to 
support  her  strength,  and  although  she  ceased  nursing,  her  own 
sensations  convinced  her  of  the  necessity  of  continuing  them.  The 
outward  and  visible  change  is  but  an  exponent  of  the  degenerations 
and  diseases  which  are  taking  root  within.  If  there  be  a  predis- 
position to  insanity  or  consumption,  these  diseases  are  developed 
very  rapidly,  or  they  are  brought  on  where  proper  management 
might  altogether  have  tided  over  those  periods  of  life  at  which  the 
predisposition  is  prone  to  become  provoked  into  actual  disease." 

Another  wrong  of  the  nursery  is  the  giving  of  actual 
drams  to  the  babe.  The  child  has  been  left  too  long,  for 
the  mother  to  ^^  get  through  her  work,"  or  to  ^*  see  com- 
pany." The  little  one  has  become  too  faint  and  chilled 
to  be  able  to  take  nourishment  or  to  digest  it  if  taken. 
Then  it  is  walked  with,  tossed,  trotted,  and  otherwise 


,/ 


*  Gustafson,  p.  224. 


396  KCOXOMICS    OF    PIIOIIIIJITIOX. 

tortured  till  maternal  and  paternal  endurance  is  ex- 
hausted. Then  ''  hot  whiskej  and  water"  is  given  to 
intoxicate  the  little  stomach  and  brain,  and  the  baby 
goes  to  sleep  on  a  teaspoonful  just  as  its  father  would  on 
half  a  pint.  A  mother  who  understands  her  business 
will  take  such  an  infant — if  by  accident  it  ever  gets  to 
that  stage — put  hot  flannels  over  its  stomach  and  feet, 
give  it  the  hot  water  with  something  as  innocent  as  pep- 
permint, and  soothe  it  to  a  happy  sleep,  from  which  it 
will  wake  able  to  take  its  natural  food,  with  no  depress- 
ing reaction  such  as  surely  follows  alcoholic  stimulant. 
Civilization  must  banish  this  clinging  relic  of  barbarism, 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  the  nursery. 
Byron  said  of  Greece  : 

**  When  riseth  Lacedsemon's  hardihood, 

When  Thebes  Epaminondas  rears  again, 
When  Athens'  children  are  with  hearts  endued, 

Wken  Grecian  mothers  shall  fjive  birih  to  men, 
Then  mayest  thou  be  restored,  but  not  till  then." 

To  have  a  sound  nation  we  must  have  wise  mothers 
and  healthy  babies. 


CHAPTER  XXY. 

POLITICS. 

"  To  preserve  the  Government  we  must  nlso  preserve  a  correct  and 
energetic  tone  of  morals.  Liberty  consists  more  in  the  habits  of  the 
people  than  in  anything  else.  There  are  always  men  wicked  enongh 
to  go  to  any  lengths  in  the  pursuit  of  power,  if  they  can  find  others 
wicked  enough  to  support  them.  Ambitious  men  must  be  restrained 
by  the  public  morality  ;  when  they  rise  up  to  do  evil,  they  must 
find  themselves  standing  alone.  Morality  rests  on  religion.  If  you 
destroy  the  foundation,  the  superstructure  must  fall."  —  Da7\iel 
Webster,  July  Uh,  1802. 

**  The  moral  forces  of  the  masses  lie  in'  temperance.  I  have  no 
faith  in  anything  apart  from  that  movement  for  the  elevation  of  the 
■working  class." — Richard  Cdbden. 

Dr.  Johnson  is  said  to  have  interpolated  the  following 
lilies  into  the  ^*  Traveller"  of  Goldsmith  : 

"  How  small,  of  all  that  human  hearts  endure, 
That  part  which  laws  or  kings  can  cause  or  cure  !" 

The  doctor  called  Goldsmith  ^'  an  inspired  idiot,"  but 
be  would  never  have  thought  of  that  sentence  either 
through  his  inspiration  or  his  idiocy.  Was  the  tyranny  of 
Nero  and  Domitian,  then,  a  small  matter,  when  Roman 
matrons  stabbed  themselves  to  death  in  their  own  homes  to 
avoid  being  torn  away  to  the  emperor's  harem  ?  Was  it  a 
small  thing  when  half  the  population  were  slaves,  and 
many  of  the  brightest  genius  liable  to  bo  beaten  or  cruci- 
fied at  the  whim  of  brntal  masters  ?  Was  it  a  small 
tiling  when  prisoners  of  war  were  made  to  fight  to  the 


398  ECONOMICS    01'    1»K0HI1UTI0X. 

death  in  the  amphitheatre  ?  Was  it  a  small  thing  when 
Alexander  descended  on  rich  and  populous  Tyre,  and 
when  he  captured  it  after  a  wasting  siege,  crucified  two 
thousand  of  its  brave  defenders  on  the  sea-shore  with 
their  faces  turned  toward  the  city  they  had  vainly  de- 
fended, while  the  long,  weeping  train  of  wives  and  chil- 
dren was  driven  away  under  the  lash  to  be  sold  into  distant 
slavery  ?  Was  the  dire  oppression  of  the  Bourbon  kings 
a  small  matter  when  it  drove  the  French  nation  into  the 
mad  Revolution  ?  Were  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  a  small 
matter  when  they  poured  out  the  best  blood  of  England 
to  decide  which  of  two  rival  families  should  furnish 
England  a  **king"  ?  Were  the  wasting  wars  of  Freder- 
ick the  Great,  and  of  Napoleon,  small  matters  when  it 
might  almost  be  said  of  Europe,  ^'  there  was  not  a  house 
in  which  there  was  not  one  dead"  ?  lias  it  been  a  small 
matter  to  Mexico,  for  so  many  years  in  the  past,  not  to 
know  who  would  govern  it  the  next  day  ?  Far  deeper 
was  the  insight,  far  truer  the  thought  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment writer,  ''  I  exhort,  therefore,  first  of  all,  that  pray- 
ers, supplications,  and  giving  of  thanks  be  made  . 
for  kings  and  for  all  that  are  in  authority,  that  we  may 
lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives  in  all  godliness  and  hon- 
esty." The  common  sense  of  mankind  has  not  been  in 
fault  when  it  has  led  them  to  forsake  home,  sacrifice 
treasure,  and  lay  down  life  to  overthrow  bad  govern- 
ment and  to  build  up  good  government — ^*  to  establish 
justice,  ensure  domestic  trancj^uillity,  provide  for  the  com- 
mon defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and  their  poster- 
ity." 

The  man  who  thinks  he  is  too  great  to  attend  to  ques- 
tions of  good  government  simply  shows  that  he  is  too 


POLITICS.  399 

narrow.  The  man  wlio  thinks  the  business,  professional 
or  religious  interests  he  is  engaged  in  are  too  vast  to 
allow  him  to  consider  governmental  affairs  or  help  to  con- 
trol them,  is  simply  neglecting  one  of  the  greatest  factors 
iu  the  interests  for  which  he  lives.  Neither  home,  com- 
merce, literature,  art,  nor  the  Church  can  reach  its  high- 
est development,  or  even  be  itself  secure,  without  the 
aid  of  good,  pure  government. 

What  shall  be  said  when  a  paper  like  the  Chicago 
Times,  which  is  bj  no  means  a  distinctively  temperance 
paper,  publishes  such  an  utterance  as  this  (in  its  issue  of 
June  8th,  1889) : 

"  The  largest  brewerj'  in  Detroit  has  been  aclded  to  a  syndicate 
that  threatens  to  be  the  most  dangerous  political  power  iu  the  United 
States.  The  breweries  now  control  the  principal  distilling  interests, 
and  will  in  future  direct  every  contest  in  which  the  people  shall 
endeavor  to  limit  the  frightful  havoc  of  the  liquor  traffic." 

That  is  to  say,  the  worst  element  in  American  civiliza- 
tion, the  cause  of  ^'frightful  havoc,"  is  in  future  to 
^'  direct  every  contest"  where  the  people  may  strive  to 
shake  off  the  terrible  yoke.  Is  it  not  time  for  American 
manhood  to  arise  and  at  least  make  one  mighty  trial  of 
strength,  to  see  whether  this  is  so  or  not — whether  there 
is  not  soQiewhere  in  our  institutions  a  power  that  may 
preserve  all  we  hold  dear  against  its  spoliation  ? 

We  are  told  by  leaders  of  morality  and  by  leaders  of   / 
religion  that  ^'  questions  of  morals  must  not  be  brought 
into  politics."     In  the  name  of  God,  in  the  name  of 
humanity,  in  the  name  of  freedom,  why  not  ? 

What  is  "  politics"  but  a  device  for  securing  the  good  y 
of  the  people  ?     And  what  so  deeply  concerns  the  good 
of  the  people  as  true  morality  ?     Have  not  all  nations 
that  have  perished  gone  down  under  the  weight  of  their 


4UU  i;co>;u.MUs  uf  i'kohibitiun. 

own  vices  ?  It  was  not  the  Goths  and  Vandals  who  con- 
quered Rome.  Rome  was  conquered  long  before  by  the 
corruption  and  enervation  of  its  people,  which  had  de- 
stroyed truth,  honor,  purpose,  patriotism,  home,  and 
even  physical  manhood.  Certainly  all  that  tends  to  such 
results  is  matter  for  legislation  and  for  politics,  which  are 
the  foundation  of  legislation.  If  politics  are  not  to  save 
a  nation  from  such  a  doom,  what  are  they  for  ?  Why 
should  we  go  through  the  tax  and  strain,  the  excitement 
and  expense  of  elections,  if  they  are  not  to  influence  by 
a  feather's  weight  these  matters  which  most  vitally  con- 
cern the  happiness,  the  welfare,  and  the  very  existence 
of  a  people  ? 

\l  There  are  some  very  devout  and  scholarly  men  who 
tell  us  that  any  political  action  about  morals  is  a  ''  union 
of  Church  and  State."  Ilow  they  make  it  out  that  in 
suppressing  the  saloon  the  State  is  interfering  with  the 
liberty  of  the  Church,  or  the  Church  with  the  liberty  of 
the  State,  is  beyond  all  ordinary  comprehension.  One 
leading  theologian  has  said  :  *'  If  I  am  going  to  punish 
a  man  for  sin,  I  ought  to  punish  him  for  the  greatest  of 
sins,  which  is  not  believing  in  Christ."  This  is  simply 
trifling  with  language,  and  using  the  word  ^^sin'^  in  an 
equivocal  sense.  When  spoken  of  liquor  selling,  it 
means  outward  immorality.  When  spoken  of  unbelief, 
it  means  a  state  of  the  secret  heart.  There  is  a  great 
fund  of  common  morality  which  is  accepted  by  all 
rational  and  civilized  men.  It  is  in  substance  that  con- 
tained in  the  Ten  Commandments.  Now  Ingersoll  may 
not  believe  them  inspired.  With  that  the  civil  law  has 
nothing  to  do.  But  if  Ingersoll  goes  a  step  further,  and 
because  he  does  not  believe  them  inspired,  takes  the 
liberty  to  steal  or  commit  murder,  the  law  will  very 


POLITICS.  401 

promptly  punish  liim  without  any  infringement  of  re- 
h'gious  liberty.  We  have  a  concrete  case  iu  this  very 
line  in  American  life  to-day — the  Mormons.  They  be- 
lieve polygamy  a  divine  institution.  We  say  the  Gov- 
ernment has  nothing  to  do  with  your  belief.  But  if  you 
marry  more  than  one  wife  we  will  fine  and  imprison  you 
for  it.  Now,  if  legislation  upon  morals  is  an  interfer- 
ence with  religions  liberty,  this  is  a  very  flagrant  case  of 
interference.  It  comes  into  the  very  home  circle,  into 
the  house  which  the  common  law  declares  the  man's 
**  castle,"  into  the  most  private  relations  of  life,  and 
punishes  a  man  for  marrying  a  woman  whom  he  verily 
believes  he  had  a  divine  right  to  marry,  and  who  verily 
believes  she  had  a  divine  right  to  marry  him.  In  order 
to  make  the  prohibition  of  liquor  selling  a  parallel  case 
to  this  prohibition  of  polygamy,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
show  that  the  saloon-keeper  believes  it  is  his  divine  right 
and  his  sacred  duty  to  sell  liquor,  and  that  it  is  taught 
him  by  the  most  sacred  teachings  of  his  religion.  The 
danger  of  interference  with  religious  liberty  is  not  a 
thousandth  part  as  great  in  the  prohibition  of  the  saloon 
as  in  the  prohibition  of  the  harem.  Let  those  who  are 
80  very  anxious  lest  legislation  upon  morals  shall  harm 
religions  liberty  awake  to  the  situation  in  Utah,  where 
the  United  States  Government  is  enforcing  the  Seventh 
Commandment  with  the  stronoj  hand  I 

But  we  shall  be  told  ^'  the  Government  does  not  legis-*^ 
late  against  polygamy  as  wrong,  but  as  injurious  to  so- 
ciety." Well,  if  that  is  the  case,  what  is  more  fearfully 
injurious  to  society  than  the  saloon  ?  Since  the  liquor 
seUing  is  doing  such  manifest  damage  to  society,  we  may 
proceed  against  it  for  the  damage,  even  if  we  also  believe 
it  to  he  viiclk'id. 


402  ECONOMICS    DF    PROHIBITIOX. 

But  we  are  ready  to  go  further.  Wo  hold  that  in  a 
case  of  manifest  moral  wrong — violation  of  the  great  law 
of  common  right — we  may  proceed  against  the  wrong 
without  waiting  to  prove  the  injury.  For  moral  wrong 
is  the  greatest  possible  injury  to  society.  It  is  very 
doubtful  if  any  man  can  prove  that  polygamy  has  been 
injurious  to  society  in  Utah  on  merely  materialistic 
grounds.  The  Mormons  claim  that  it  has  been  a  benefit. 
The  facts,  on  the  whole,  seem  to  sustain  their  claim. 
They  are  rich,  aggressive,  prosperous,  advancing,  colon- 
izing. The  strength  of  our  argument  against  polygamy 
is  that  it  must  do  harm,  even  if  we  cannot  show  the 
harm  ;  that  wrong  against  the  marriage  relation  is  itself 
the  greatest  harm,  corrupting  the  very  springs  of  public 
virtue  and  undermining  the  foundations  of  civilized 
society.  We  proceed  against  polygamy  because  it  is 
wrong,  and  therefore  sure  to  be  injurious.  This  is  the 
only  way  we  can  deal  with  public  wrong,  to  deal  effec- 
tively. *'  Sentence  against  an  evil  work  is  not  executed 
speedily."  Often  the  wrong  thing  seems  the  prosperous 
thing.  We  cannot  wait  until  it  has  destroyed  a  nation. 
We  must  deal  with  it  as  wrong,  and  therefore  sure  to  be 
injurious  somewhere  and  some  time.     Tiiere  is  a 

CASH    VALDE    IN    MORALITY, 

though  we  cannot  always  show  it  at  the  start.  Govern- 
ment has  no  more  sacred  duty  and  no  higher  trust  than 
to  conserve  the  morals  of  a  people.  In  that  it  is  sure  to 
bo  providing  for  their  prosperity  and  security.  It  is 
fitting  for  us  to  plead  against  the  saloon  its  vast  moral 
wrong  on  those  common  lines  of  morality  which  all 
men  recognize. 

It  was  8o  that  wo  broke  down  slavcrv.      Wo  did   not 


POLITICS.  403 

find  out  its  economic  harm  till  after  we  had  destroyed  it. 
The  South  thought  it  a  source  of  vast  prosperity.  The 
slave-holders  were  not  all  Haleys  or  Legrees.  Many 
slaves  were  so  kindly  treated  that  they  voluntarily  re- 
mained with  their  former  masters,  even  supporting  them 
by  their  own  earnings  in  the  time  of  poverty  and  need 
that  followed  the  war.  The  great,  profoundly  moving 
thought  that  took  iiold  of  the  conscience  of  the  North 
was  that  "  there  is  no  right  of  property  in  man."  No 
one  will  charge  Abraham  Lincoln  with  being  a  foe  to 
religious  liberty.  There  are  not  many  men  who  would 
venture  to  claim  that  he  did  not  understand  the  philoso- 
phy of  government.  Abraham  Lincoln  set  himself  to 
oppose  slavery  after  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion, 
as  expressed  in  his  own  terse  phrase,  "  If  slavery  is 
not  wrong,  then  nothing  is  wrong."  The  key  to  his 
whole  campaign  against  Douglas,  which  roused  tho 
hearts  of  Illinois  and  of  the  nation  and  made  him  Presi- 
dent, was  the  moral  wrong  of  slavery.  He  said  of  it, 
in  the  now  immortal  words  : 

**  He  [Douglas]  says  he  *  don't  care  whether  it  is  voted  up  or 
Toted  down  '  in  the  Territories.  .  .  .  Any  man  can  say  that  who 
does  not  see  anything  wrong  in  slavery,  but  no  man  can  logically 
say  it  who  does  see  a  wrong  in  it ;  because  no  man  can  logically  say 
he  don't  care  whether  a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted  down.  He  may 
say  he  don't  care  whether  an  indifferent  thing  is  voted  up  or  down, 
but  he  must  logically  have  a  choice  between  a  right  thing  and  a 
wrong  thing.  He  contends  that  whatever  community  wants  slaves 
has  a  right  to  have  them.  So  they  have,  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But 
if  it  is  a  wrong,  he  cannot  say  people  have  a  right  to  do  wrong. 
.  .  .  And  if  there  be  among  you  anybody  who  supposes  that  he, 
as  a  Democrat,  can  consider  himself  '  as  much  opposed  to  slavery  as 
anybody,'  I  would  like  to  reason  with  him.  You  never  treat  it  as 
a  wrong.  What  other  thing  that  you  consider  as  a  wrong  do  you 
deal  with  as  you  deal  with  that  ?  Perhaps  you  say  it  is  a  wrong,  but 
your  leader  never  does,  and  you  quarrel  with  anybody  who  says  it  in 


404  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

wrong.  .  .  .  You  may  turn  over  everything  in  the  Democratic  policy 
from  beginning  to  end,  ...  it  everywhere  carefully  excludes 
the  idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  it.  That  is  the  real  issue. 
That  is  the  issue  that  will  continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor 
tongues  of  Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the  eternal 
struggle  between  these  ttoo  principles — right  and  wrong — throughout  the 
world.  They  are  the  two  principles  that  have  stood  face  to  face 
from  the  beginning  of  time,  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle." 

We  say  of  this  curse  of  our  day  :  *^  If  the  liquor 
traffic  is  not  wrong,  then  nothing  is  wrong."  We  claim 
that,  from  the  economic  standpoint,  it  is  proper  to 
urge  against  the  liquor  traffic  that  it  is  wrong  as  murder 
is  wrong  and  as  stealing  is  wrong,  for  it  involves  the  es- 
sence of  both  ;  as  licentiousness  is  wrong,  for  it  is  the 
mightiest  feeder  of  that  great  cancer.  In  the  name  of 
economics  we  have  a  right  to  awaken  the  public  con- 
science to  the  liquor  crime,  as  the  surest  way  to  abolish 
the  liquor  curse.  The  most  sacred  trust  of  politics  is  the 
moral  well  being  of  a  nation.  By  that  we  do  not  mean 
religion,  but  rectitude,  honesty,  truth,  and  justice  from 
man  to  man — concrete,  tangible  right,  as  against  overt 
wrong  with  which  law  can  deal.  We  invoke  the  power 
of  legislation  against  the  liquor  traffic  as  a  mighty,  tangi- 
ble, overt  wrong. 

Then  we  invoke  it  further  as  against  a  fearful  national 
loss,  waste,  and  peril,  and  wo  claim  that  by  as  much  as 
politics  may  take  account  of  prisons  and  almshouses  and 
insane  asylums — and  every  legislature  and  governor  has 
to  answer  for  the  record  made  in  these  matters  in  every 
campaign — by  so  much  politics  may  take  account  of  the 
traffic  which  chiefly  fills  those  institutions  of  despair. 
Wo  claim  that  by  as  much  as  politics  may  take  account 
of  the  tariff,  and  rock  the  country  as  with  an  earthquake 
with  that  issue,  by  so  much  more  may  politics  take  ac 


POLITICS.  405 

count  of  a  traffic  whose  expenses  are  ten  times*  more 
than  all  the  receipts  from  our  tariff,  and  three  times 
more  than  the  total  value  of  all  our  imports.  The  com- 
mon sense  of  the  people  is  right.  The  liquor  traffic  is 
iu  politics,  and  it  is  there  to  stay.  It  is  the  most  burn- 
ing question  with  which  our  politics  have  now  to  deal. 
The  temperance  plank — or  the  want  of  it — is  the  first 
thing  the  people  look  for  in  every  State  and  national 
platform.  It  is  this  in  regard  to  which  platform  com- 
mittees are  besieged,  this  with  which  they  wrestle  through 
weary  hours,  this  which  decides  the  fate  of  elections. 
It  is  fitting  that  it  should.  It  "  will  never  be  settled  till 
it  is  settled  right."  The  only  way  to  get  the  liquor 
traffic  out  of  politics  is  to  get  the  liquor  traffic  out  of  the 
country. 

We  quote  again  from  Mr.  Locke  the  following  strik- 
ing example  of  what  he  calls  *^  the  infernal  part  which 
it  [the  liquor  traffic]  plays  in  politics"  : 

"  In  Toledo,  with  ninety  thousand  population,  there  are  eight 
hundred  whiskey  and  beer  shops.  The  vote  of  the  city  is  fifteen 
thousand.  Now  these  shops  will  average  two  votes  each,  the  pro- 
prietor  and  one  assistant,  which  makes  a  total  of  sixteen  hundred. 
This  is  a  tremendous  power,  especially  as  it  is  wielded  by  one  head. 
All  these  men  belong  to  the  Liquor  Dealers'  Association,  and  all  act 
together.  These  men  have  no  principles.  They  are  not  divided 
upon  tariff,  currency,  and  other  questions  ;  politics  is  a  part  of  their 
business,  and  their  vote  is  cast  as  one,  that  it  may  bo  made  profit- 
able. They  are  in  a  business  that  everybody  looks  upon  as  dis- 
reputable ;  they  are  in  it  to  make  money,  and  they  care  not  how 
they  make  it. 


*  The  imports  of  the  United  States  in  1887  were  $679,159,477. 
The  customs  receipts  (tariff)  for  the  same  year  were  $217,286,893. 
We  have  shown  that  the  direct  cost  of  the  liquor  trafl&c  is  more 
than  $1,000,000,000,  and  the  indirect  cost  as  much  again.  (See 
Chapter  II.,  page  17.) 


406  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

"  In  party  contests  this  power  has  tw^o  points  to  make.  First,  to 
demonstrate  that  it  is  a  power  which  is  not  to  be  meddled  with. 
No  matter  whether  the  candidate  aims  at  the  Presidency,  a  seat  in 
Congress,  scliool  directorship,  or  a  park  commissionership,  the  first 
question  the  Liqnor  Dealers'  Association  asks,  is.  Is  he  a  temperance 
man  ?  If  he  is,  the  whole  power  of  the  organization  is  turned  against 
him.  They  want  it  understood  that  no  one  can  be  elec:ed  to  any 
place  of  honor  or  profit  without  their  help.  The  showing  of  this 
power  insures  them  against  such  troublesome  interference  as  the 
enactment  of  early-closing  laws,  Sunday  closing,  large  taxation,  and, 
above  all.  Prohibition.  They  aim  at  control  of  the  law-making  power 
as  well  as  the  law- executing  power.  Secondly,  they  want  their  places 
to  be  made  the  centre  of  political  management,  the  places  where 
committees  meet,  and  from  whence  money  used  in  the  elections  is 
to  be  dispensed.  From  this  money  they  take  their  toll,  as  a  matter 
of  course.  The  point  with  the  brewer  is  to  make  the  brewery  the 
one  controlling  element  in  politics,  and  he  has  succeeded  wonder- 
fully. A  politician  may  safely  snub  the  Church,  but  he  grovels  in 
the  dust  before  the  wiclder  of  the  beer- mallet.  He  pays  no  attention 
to  the  good  classes,  but  how  ho  bows  to  the  worst !  The  reason  is, 
the  good  classes  are  divided  on  political  and  economic  questions, 
while  the  liquor  interest  is  united  solely  for  one  end. 

'*  Once  more,  as  to  their  strength  :  add  to  this  vote  (which  is,  of 
itself,  enough  to  turn  the  scale  as  parties  are  now  organized)  the 
collateral  branches  of  trade  more  or  less  connected  with  liquor  mak- 
ing and  selling.  The  tobacconists,  the  coopers,  the  bottlers,  and  the 
(liflEerent  kinds  of  people  who  supply  the  saloon  trade,  are  all  under 
this  influence,  and  half  as  many  more  can  be  added  to  this  sixteen 
hundred,  making  it  twenty-four  hundred. 

'*  But  this,  large  as  it  is,  is  the  least  of  it.  There  is  not  one  of 
these  eight  hundred  saloons  that  cannot  control  four  votes  besides 
the  two  behind  the  bar,  and  that  comes  very  close  to  a  full  half  of  all 
the  votes  in  the  city.  They  control  the  poor  devils  who  are  glad  to 
■oil  their  votes  for  the  beer  they  can  drink  a  week  or  two  before  an 
election,  and  one  day  after. 

"  Now  take  this  enormous  vote,  mass  the  men  employed  in  brew- 
eries, the  wholesalers  an<l  retailers  of  li([uor,  the  bar-tenders  and 
other  assistaots  directly  employed,  the  collateral  branches  of  trade 
dependent  more  or  less  upon  them,  and  the  vast  army  of  hangers-on 
of  the  saloons,  and  it  is  a  power  which  can  and  does  control  the 
cities  of  the  country.     Parties  vie  with  each  other  in  bidding  for 


POLITICS.  407 

the  saloon  vote,  nominations  are  made  with  sole  reference  to  it,  and 
this  uuholy  power  would  become  the  government  but  for  the  coun- 
terncting  intluence  in  the  country,  which  is  yet,  to  some  extent,  free 
from  its  infernal  influence. 

"  Think  of  a  government  under  control  of  an  organization  whose 
business  it  is  to  make  criminals  and  paupers  !  Think  of  a  govern- 
ment controlled  by  the  worst  instead  of  the  best  citizens  !  Think 
of  communities  governed  by  the  men  whose  business  it  is  to  make 
thieves  and  paupers  instead  of  honest  and  self-supporting  citizens  ! 

**  The  influence  of  rum  in  politics  is  one  of  the  strongest  reasons 
for  Prohibition." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE    PRESS. 

"  The  attitude  of  the  newspapers  throughout  the  Union  is  greatlj 
to  be  deprecated.  Scores  and  hundreds  of  facts  prove  the  efficacy  of 
the  law.  Atlanta  now  has  peaceful  streets  and  happy  homes,  with 
sober  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers,  with  plenty  to  eat  and  to  wear, 
where  before  there  were  broken  hearts,  fear  of  domestic  outrage,  and 
sometimes  actual  want.  The  great  daily  press  abroad  says  nothing 
of  the  great  good  that  has  resulted,  but  if  a  hand  truck  load  of  jugs 
is  seen  (which  is  no  great  matter  to  60,000  people)  this  must  be  mag- 
nified into  a  "  jug  train"  and  the  whole  press  of  the  United  States 
made  to  ring  with  it." — Mayor  George  Hillyer,  of  Atlanta. 

The  **  daily  paper"  forms  all  the  tliouglit  of  the 
majority  of  men.  There  is  an  educated  ignorance  which 
is  the  most  unconquerable  and  the  most  fatal  of  all  igno- 
rance. You  shall  find  all  over  the  land  clergymen,  law- 
yers, physicians,  professors  and  presidents  of  colleges, 
great  and  learned  men,  masters  in  their  several  depart- 
ments, who  are  densely  and  profoundly  ignorant  as  to 
the  present  status  of  the  temperance  question,  turning 
over  as  axioms  claims  long  since  disproved,  and  holding 
as  the  latest  results  of  knowledge  the  crude  opinions  of 
twenty.fi vo  or  fifty  years  ago.  Men  who  would  not 
think  of  pronouncing  on  a  new  remedy  for  disease  with- 
out studying  the  latest  experiments  favorable  and  un- 
favorable, who  would  not  think  of  deciding  upon  a  new 
question  of  law  or  a  new  discovery  in  science  without 
careful  consideration  of  the  last  decisions  of  the  courts 
or  the  latest  scientific  authorities,  will  handle  this  tern- 


THK     PUK8S.  409 

perance  question  any  time  and  anywhere,  and  show  in 
live  minutes  that  they  do  not  know  what  has  Ijeen  hap- 
pening in  their  own  country  or  their  own  State  in  the 
last  five  years.  Because  they  are  wise  and  strong  in  the 
things  they  have  studied,  they  deem  themselves  equally 
wise  and  strong  in  this  which  they  have  not  studied,  and 
resent  any  attempt  to  enlighten  them  as  an  insult  to 
their  intelligence.  AYhy  ?  Because  they  have  gained 
all  their  knowledge  on  the  temperance  question  from 
their  daily  paper,  combined  supposed  facts  and  infer- 
ences ready-made  to  their  hand  into  fixed  opinions, 
which  seem  to  them  as  clear  as  anything  else  they  have 
ever  learned.  An  eminent  lawyer  of  a  Western  city 
said  to  the  writer  :  *^  1  read  nothing  but  law.  1  have  a 
large  law  library  at  my  office  and  another  at  my  house. 
At  both  places  I  read  law.  The  only  exception  is  that 
when  I  start  for  my  office  I  take  my  morning  paper  and 
read  it  on  the  car  as  I  go  down.  When  I  return  I  buy 
an  evening  paper  and  read  that  on  the  car  as  I  go  home." 
Now,  in  the  course  of  years  all  that  man's  mind  be- 
comes soaked  with  the  thinking  of  his  favorite  journal. 
He  becomes  accustomed  to  its  coarseness,  so  that  it  does 
not  shock  him  as  it  w'ould  if  h<3  were  suddenly  to  come 
upon  it  for  the  first  time.  His  entire  knowledge  of 
governmental  matters  consists  of  such  **  facts"  as  his 
one  paper  chooses  to  tell  him.  Its  sophistries  become 
his  reasoning.  Its  heartlessness  moulds  his  feelings,  con- 
trols his  emotions.  At  length  he  reaches  the  point  where 
it  would  be  the  labor  of  years  to  educate  him  out  of  the 
errors  he  has  imbibed.  You  must  go  far  back  to  first 
principles.  You  must  bring  evidence  to  disprove  things 
that  never  happened.  You  must  conquer  deep-seated 
prejudices  that  make  him  blind  to  evidence.     If  he  is  a 


410  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIDITIOX. 

busy  man — as  every  leading  man  is  sure  to  be — it  be- 
comes true  at  last  that  he  really  ^'  has  not  time"  to  un- 
learn what  he  has  been  learning  through  all  his  reading 
years. 

In  an  intensely  partisan  paper  it  is  impossible  to  get 
mere,  plain  facts — so  intermingled  are  they  witli  com- 
ments on  the  wickedness  and  meanness  of  the  opposing 
party.  After  going  through  a  column  to  learn  the  par- 
ticulars of  a  five-line  incident,  you  turn  the  paper  in  de- 
spair, saying  :  *'  If  I  could  only  be  told  just  what  hap- 
Dened,  I  could  form  my  own  opinions." 
^  Our  partisan  press  is  educating  the  nation  into  a  con- 
tempt of  character  and  an  utter  disregard  of  truth.  We 
need  to  have  it  thundered  from  a  new  Sinai,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor."  No 
sooner  is  a  man  nominated  for  any  office  than  he  is  found 
to  be  an  unmitigated  scoundrel.  The  writer  well  re- 
members meeting  a  merchant  of  Boston  whom  he  had 
known  as  an  irreproachable  man,  superintendent  of  one 
Sunday-school  for  twenty-five  years,  who  had  just  been 
nominated  for  Congress.  I  congratulated  him,  saying  I 
was  glad  to  have  an  opportunity  to  vote  for  a  good  man. 

He  answered  :  **  If  you  will  read  the ,  you 

will  think  I  am  not  a  very  good  man."  So  it  was.  The 
man  unchallenged  through  all  his  business  life  was  re- 
ported as  perfidious  and  dishonorable  within  a  week  after 
his  nomination.  So  far  has  this  gone  that  no  man  pre- 
tends to  believe,  or  troubles  himself  to  investigate,  any 
cliargcs  that  are  made  against  political  candidates  in  the 
papers — of  tlie  party  ho  does  not  belong  to.  That  is, 
each  political  division  of  American  voters  concludes  that 
all  the  papers  of  the  country  which  do  not  belong  to  that 
division  are  nnconscionable  liars.    Tlie  charge  that  it  tells 


Tin:  PRESS.  411 

falsehoods  is  the  easiest  and  safest  charge  to  bring  against 
any  political  paper  in  the  paper  in  the  United  States,  be- 
eanso  all  who  do  not  belong  to  its  own  political  party  will 
believe  it  as  a  matter  of  course.  How  is  this  for  '*  the 
educational  influence  of  the  press"  ?  Is  it  not  time  to 
call  loudly  for  a  reform  ?  Is  it  not  time  for  every  man 
to  protect  himself  ;  and  if  he  means  to  be  fair  and  broad- 
minded,  to  beware  of  confining  himself  to  the  papers  of 
any  one  party  ?  You  believe  the  tariff  is  a  good  thing. 
Very  well.  But  you  cannot  be  sure  you  have  fathomed 
the  question  unless  you  read  what  there  is  to  say  against 
It.  You  believe  it  is  a  bad  thing.  But  you  cannot  claim 
to  know  the  facts  unless  you  read  w^hat  there  is  to  be 
eaid  in  its  favor.  You  believe  High  License  is  a  good 
thing.  But  you  cannot  claim  to  have  an  intelligent 
opinion  on  the  subject  unless  you  read  and  duly  weigh 
the  facts  that  are  alleged  against  it.  You  are  not  com- 
petent to  instruct  your  five-year-old  boy  till  you  have 
done  so  much  as  that.  The  quick  rejoinder  will  be,  Does 
not  the  same  rule  apply  to  Prohibitionists  ?  Yes.  But 
as  yet  Prohibitionists  read  only  too  much  of  what  is  said 
against  their  views.  They  have  no  great  daily  w^liich 
will  give  them  all  the  news  on  other  matters.  They  con- 
stantly read — for  the  news — papers  that  are  in  deadly 
opposition  to  their  principles.  If  they  continue  to  be 
Prohibitionists,  it  is  in  spite  of  all  that  able  and  hostile 
papers  can  say  to  the  contrary.  An  intelligent  Pro- 
hibitionist of  the  present  day  is  likely  to  be  the  best-in- 
formed man  to  be  found  upon  the  temperance  question, 
because  he  has  read  both  sides,  while  the  majority  of  his 
opponents  have  read  but  one.  Does  this  seem  to  any 
one  a  claim  of  sheer,  irrational  self-conceit  ?  Then  go 
out  to-morrow  morning  in  your  owu  town,  and  ask  the 


412  ECONOMICS    OF    PIIOHIBITION. 

most  intelligent  and  the  most  learned  opponents  of  Pro- 
hibition whom  you  meet  how  often  they  read  a  Pro- 
hibition paper,  and  see  if  you  are  not  scornfully  told 
**  Never!"  or  '*  Yery  seldom."  The  ordinary  reason 
given  is,  *'  I  haven't  time" — that  is,  not  time  after 
reading  all  that  a  hostile  eight-page  paper  has  to  say 
against  it. 

But  it  will  be  said,  ^*  This  is  getting  entirely  away 
from  the  subject  of  economics."  Is  it  1  Has  the  mat- 
ter of  truth  no  place  in  economics  ?  How  about  the 
obligation  of  contracts  ?  Wliat  has  been  the  bottom 
fact  in  the  worst  financial  crises  this  country  has  ever 
seen  ?  Distrust.  Want  of  confidence  of  man  in  man. 
Great  embezzlements  and  rascalities  of  trusted  men  and 
corporations  made  every  man  distrust  every  other. 
Capital  fled  to  cover.  The  business  enterprises  that 
were  most  hopefully  represented  were  looked  upon  as 
the  most  suspicious.  The  longest  tried  integrity  was  at 
a  discount,  through  fear  that  tlie  trusted  man  would  be 
trading  on  his  reputation  for  honesty,  as  a  means  to  en- 
trap the  unwary.  Only  slowly  has  trade  revived  as  con- 
fidence returned,  and  men  began  to  hope  that  at  last, 
perliaps,  most  of  the  rascals  were  unmasked,  and  the  rest 
of  humanity  could  be  trusted.  The  press  which  breaks 
down  faitli  in  human  veracity  is  doing  a  deadly  injury 
to  the  finances  of  a  people. 

There  is  perhaps  one  more  fatal  thing  in  this  very  con- 
nection.  To  create  the  belief  that  all  men  are  false  is 
one  of  the  surest  ways  to  make  all  men  so.  It  is  hard 
enough  to  be  right  amid  all  the  world's  temptations 
while  looking  admiringly  to  great  examples  deeply  be- 
lieved to  be  good  and  pure.  To  profoundly  distrust  all 
these  tends  to  produce  a  despair  of  virtue,  which  is  most 


THE    PRESS.  .413 

perilous  to  one's  own  steadfastness.  The  press  cannot 
be  excused  for  any  partisan  advantage  in  bringing  down 
the  nation's  standard  of  excellence  and  the  youthful 
ideal  of  character.  Destroying  faith  in  honesty  tends  to 
produce  dishonesty,  and  is  full  of  financial  as  of  mora), 
dangers.  We  need  a  reorganized  press,  taking  and 
holding  higher  and  nobler  ground. 

The  recent  Amendment  contests  in  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Rhode  Island  have  shown  a  condition 
of  things  in  the  partisan  press  which  has  been  a  great 
surprise  to  the  majority  of  our  people.  It  was  generally 
believed  tliat  in  a  non-partisan  contest  the  press  would 
tell  the  substantial  facts,  or  at  least  tell  nothing  glaringly 
false.  But  when  such  a  man  as  General  Palmer,  of 
Pennsylvania,  can  say  of  the  press  of  his  State,  as  he  did 
on  June  20th,  1889  : 

*'  The  liquor  men  have  had  a  prodigious  fund,  'and  have  spent  not 
less  than  $100,000  upon  the  newspaper^  of  the  State.  The  leading 
journals  have  been  so  debauched  that  in  touching  upon  the  essential 
points  of  the  Prohibition  controversy  they  have  told  hardly  a  word 
of  truth  from  the  beginning.  The  liquor  men's  campaign,  as  made 
through  the  press,  has  been  a  campaign  of  lies  from  the  very  start. 

**  The  newspapers  of  the  State,  with  few  exceptions,  have  been 
nothing  but  common  prostitutes.  This  language,  in  view  of  the 
truth,  is  not  strong,  but  calm  and  gentle.  I  do  not  complain  because 
they  have  opposed  Prohibition,  but  because  they  have  permitted  the 
saloons  to  use  their  columns  for  the  most  shameful  purposes — for 
systematically  deceiving  the  people.  They  have  printed  bogus  des- 
patches and  unhesitatingly  used  what  they  knew  was  bogus  matter 
in  a  way  to  mislead  even  newspaper  men.  If  their  editors  deny  this 
charge  they  deliberately  write  themselves  down  liars.  They  have 
printed  articles  manufactured  right  here  in  Philadelphia  under  the 
guise  of  honest  despatches  from  Des  Moines,  Topeka,  Atchison,  and 
other  places  in  Prohibition  States,  giving  what  pretended  to  be  facts 
and  figures,  and  asserting  the  failure  of  Prohibitory  laws  and  the 
havoc  wrought  by  them.  These  '  despatches '  have  been  printed  in 
the  ordinary  way  in  the  news  columns,  without  any  marks  to  dia- 


/ 


414  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

tinguish  tbein  as  paid  matter  ;  yet  they  have  been  paid  for  from  the 
rum  funds  at  so  much  per  line,  and  this  disgraceful  work  has  been 
going  on  all  over  the  State  right  along  from  the  beginning  of  the 
campaign," 

then  it  is  surely  time  to  call  for  a  reform.  Every  citizen 
can  do  something  to  bring  it  about  by  procuring  inde- 
pendent knowledge  of  the  facts.  If  business  men  in 
every  town  in  Pennsylvania  would  have  written  to  their 
correspondents  in  Iowa  and  Kansas  to  know  what  were 
the  real  facts  in  regard  to  the  working  of  the  Prohibi- 
tory laws,  they  could  have  gathered  a  mass  of  informa- 
tion in  every  town  which  would  have  effectually  an- 
swered the  falsehoods  of  a  mercenary  press.  The  press 
would  have  been  compelled  to  change  front.  They 
would  have  seen  the  disastrous  results  of  continuing  to 
publish  what  leading  business  men  of  their  own  town 
knew  to  be  false  from  documents  in  their  hands,  and 
could  any  day  refute.  The  people  can  do  much  by 
reading  the  Prohibition  press,  even  if  not  agreeing  with 
it  in  all  respects.  It  is  under  the  argus  eye  of  a  host  of 
bitter  enemies  who  have  the  ear  of  the  people  seven 
days  to  its  one.  It  is  forced  to  take  care  that  its  state- 
ments be  such  as  can  be  proved.  Here,  too,  the  people 
have  the  verification  in  their  own  hands.  If  it  is  stated 
that  such  a  councilman  or  such  a  member  of  the  school 
board  keeps  a  saloon  at  such  and  such  a  place,  it  is  easy 
to  ask,  even  by  postal  card,  of  some  trusted  correspond- 
ent, **  Does  A.  B.  keep  a  saloon  at  No.  — ,  Blank 
Street  ?"  If  it  is  stated  that  your  party  held  a  caucus 
in  a  saloon  at  such  a  corner,  that  matter  is  entirely  sus- 
ceptible of  proof  or  disproof  by  any  one  who  cares  to 
take  the  trouble.  By  thus  sifting  facts  the  people  can 
largely  control  the  press,  and  can  obtain  a  sure  fund  of 


TiiK  ruiiss.  415 

knowledgo  on  this,  the  most  burning  and  vital  issue  be- 
fore the  American  people.  Let  every  man  be  sure  that 
the  period  of  this  discussion  is  one  of  the  historic  eras, 
and  not  lay  up  for  himself  the  humiliation  of  having  to 
learn  from  s^ibsequent  histories  what  happened  in  a  his- 
torical crisis  in  the  midst  of  which  he  lived.  Especially 
the  leaders  of  opinion  should  secure,  and  take  great 
pains  to  secure,  all  attainable  facts  upon  a  traffic  whose 
cost  is  measured  by  the  thousand  millions,  and  its  vic- 
tims by  the  hundred  thousand.  If  the  blind  lead  the 
blind  our  glorious  nation  will  fall  into  the  ditch  of 
drunkenness.  The  facts  upon  this  mighty  question  must 
be  had  from  somewhere.  If  there  is  now  no  press  which 
adequately  states  them,  such  a  press  must  be  created. 
When  two  thousand  millions  of  cost  and  loss  are  at  stake, 
there  can  be  no  better  investment  of  money  by  patriotic 
men  than  to  build  up  a  press  which  shall  fully  gather  the 
facts  and  ring  out  the  truth  in  trumpet  tones.  For  a 
single  illustration  of  the  need  :  in  the  late  election  in  the 
two  Dakotas,  the  writer  bought  New  York  dailies,  two 
on  one  day  and  four  on  another,  and  could  find  the  news 
of  Prohibition  in  Dakota  only  by  careful  search  in  .t, 
few  lines  in  the  midst  of  other  matter  that  almost  buried 
it  ;  in  one  instance  having  to  get  a  friend  who  knew  the 
paper  better  to  point  out  to  him  the  item  for  which  he 
had  searched  in  vain.  It  may  be  said,  without  doubt, 
that  most  of  the  business  men  of  New  York,  and  many 
of  its  ministers,  have  no  adequate  idea  of  that  struggle 
and  victory,  because  the  sources  of  information  on  which 
they  are  accustomed  to  rely  did  not  give  them  any 
adequate  statement  of  the  facts.  But  taking  up  the 
well-known  Prohibition  paper  of  the  same  city,  there 
was   a   full    page  of    letters   and    despatches    from    the 


416  ECONOMICS   OF    PKOIIIBITION. 

Dakotas,  with  names  and  addresses  of  the  senders,  so 
that  any  one  could  verify  or  refute  them  by  a  few  min- 
utes' correspondence.  Certainly  every  man  who  would 
claim  to  be  intelligent  on  that  subject  should  read  that 
account,  or  make  sure  that  he  has  from  somewhere  an 
account  as  good  and  complete. 

But  it  is  not  only  by  the  newspapers  that  the  work  of 
the  press  is  done.  Books  are  a  mighty  power.  The 
publications  of  the  National  Temperance  Society  and  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  and  of  many 
enterprising  firms  should  be  scattered  far  and  wide. 
Every  thoughtful  man  should  read  them  and  recommend 
them  to  the  young  people  about  him.  How,  for  in- 
stance, can  any  intelligent  and  scholarly  man  suppose 
himself  well  informed  on  the  temperance  question  who 
has  not  read  such  books  as  Dorchester's  ''  Liquor  Prob- 
lem in  All  Ages,"  and  Gustafson's  '^  Foundation  of 
Death,"  and  Richardson's  *'  Medical  Use  of  Alcohol," 
and  Maynard's  *'  Truth  about  Kansas"  ?  New  books 
must  be  written.  A  temperance  library  must  be  created. 
Writers  must  be  found  who  can  do  for  temperance  what 
Huxley  and  Tyndall  and  Joseph  Cook  have  done  for 
science — popularize  its  results,  so  as  to  put  them  within 
the  reach  of  those  who  could  not  study  the  facts  at  first 
hand  ;  and  to  make  them  attractive  and  winning  in  state- 
ment, so  that  the  great  common  people  will  be  glad  to 
read  them.  The  temperance  instruction  in  our  public 
schools  must  bo  pushed  to  greater  efficiency  and  com- 
pleteness. 

The  shrewd  liquor  interest  is  already  taking  up  this 
method  in  their  own  behalf  with  an  enterprise  and 
efficiency  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  Every  patriot  and 
every  Christian,  every  scholar  and  every  capitalist,  every 


THE    PRESS.  417 

minister  and  teacher  and  pliilanthropist  should  give  time, 
study,  and  money  to  the  work  of  disseminating  among 
our  people  a  higher  and  truer  knowledge  upon  this  ques- 
tion which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  has  come  to  our 
stirring  time  and  to  our  aggressive  people  for  solution, 
that  our  country,  yet  so  prosperous  and  so  fair,  may  escape 
a  darkly  threatening  j^eril,  and  rise  to  the  sublime  possi- 
bilities of  its  future. 


CHAPTER  XXVn. 

THE    CHURCH. 

"  I  am  speaking  for  the  Church  now,  and  I  am  free  to  say  that 
unless  she  is  deliberately  ready  to  make  a  covenant  with  death  and 
an  agreement  with  hell,  her  voice  ought  to  be  unanimous  for 
the  prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  strong  drink.  If 
that  were  her  voice,  the  Government  and  legislators  and  Congress- 
men would  not  be  long  in  hearing  of  it  and  acting  accordingly.  It 
should  be  enough  for  the  Christian  that  his  Bible  says  :  '  Woe  unto 
him  that  giveth  his  neighbor  drink,  that  puttest  thy  bottle  to  him 
and  makest  him  drunken,'  and  when  God  says  '  woe,'  no  government 
has  a  right  to  say  '  weal.'  To  me  it  is  as  clear  as  day  what  the  voice 
of  the  Church  ought  to  be  on  this  question,  unless  she  is  ready  to 
be  left  behind  in  working  righteousness,  and  to  be  out-moralled  by 
the  moralist  and  out-hnmanized  by  the  humanitarians"  —  Rev.  A.  J, 
Gordon,  D.D.,  before  the  Evangelical  Alliance  at  Washimjton,  D.  C. 

The  scriptural  ideal  of  the  Church  is  broader  than 
the  Church  itself  has  ever  attained.  While  the  Church 
is  to  prepare  hunianity  for  another  world,  it  is  to  prepare 
the  way  to  that  world  through  this  world.  On  its  earthly 
side  THE  Church  is  an  economic  institution.  It  comes 
to  men  **  as  being  themselves  also  in  the  body." 

If  we  trace  Christianity  back  to  its  origin  we  find  that 
the  Old  Testament  was  intensely  economic.  **  The  mis- 
takes of  Moses"  were  an  achievement  which  the  world 
has  not  yet  caught  up  with.  The  law  which  prohibited 
idolatry  and  taught  the  insufferable  majesty  of  the  One 
living  and  true  God,  also  taught  the  people  not  to  eat 
pork,  a  law  which,  if  the  world  had  followed  it,  would 


THE    CHURCH.  419 

doubtless  have  prevented  many  diseases.  It  taught  tliem 
to  wasli  their  clothes  and  their  persons.  It  quarantined 
against  leprosy.  It  provided  for  the  homeliest  details  in 
policing  the  camp  against  all  that  was  impure  and  insani- 
tary. Even  in  this  current  year  of  the  Christian  era, 
the  New  York  papers  are  publishing  statements  to  show 
that  the  *'  Kosher"  meats  inspected  according  to  the 
Mosaic  law  are  the  only  ones  safe  from  the  germs  of 
phthisis  or  consumption,  from  which,  in  consequence, 
it  is  affirmed,  the  Jews  as  a  race  do  not  suffer.  That 
law  carefully  watched  over  the  rights  and  needs  of  the 
poor  and  the  stranger.  Many  of  its  provisions  for  do- 
raeStic  life  are  now  reaffirmed  by  the  best  medical  and 
social  science  of  modern  times.  We  need  not  attempt 
to  defend  the  law  in  all  particulars.  It  was  confessedly 
an  imperfect  economy  for  a  transition  period,  to  give 
place  ''  in  the  fulness  of  time"  to  a  new  and  better. 
But  the  one  fact  remains  that  the  Old  Testament  religion 
was  intensely  and  minutely  economic.  It  dealt  with 
human  beings  as  those  who  were  to  live  in  domestic, 
social,  and  j^olitical  relations,  and  whose  conduct  in  those 
relations  would  affect  their  very  worship  of  God.  The 
whole  world  has  learned  that  its  Sabbath  rest-day,  what- 
ever men's  religious  creeds  may  be,  is  of  inestimable 
value  as  an  economic  institution. 

Did  all  this  economic  element,  as  lawyers  say,  *'  cease 
and  determine,"  vanish  and  pass  away,  on  the  institution 
of  the  New  Economy  ?  The  very  name,  long  fixed  in 
the  literature  of  Cliristendom,  shows  that  it  did  not.  The 
Christian  world  has  felt  through  the  ages  that  the  New 
Testament  is  also  economic,  though,  how  deeply  and 
truly.  80  it  has  often  forgotten. 

The   very   introductory  anthem    of   Christianity    was 


420  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

'*  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men."  John  the  Baptist 
told  the  publicans  to  collect  the  taxes  honestly,  and  the 
soldiers  to  "do  violence  to  no  man,  and  be  content  with 
your  wages."  He  directed  all  the  property  owners  to 
care  for  the  destitute.  "  lie  that  hath  two  coats,  let  him 
impart  to  him  that  hath  none  ;  and  he  that  hath  meat,  let 
him  do  likewise" — a  very  practical  socialism,  sharing 
from  above,  not  plundering  from  below. 

The  most  striking  thing  on  the  surface  of  Christ's  own 
ministry  was  His  care  for  the  bodies  of  men — "  He  went 
about  doing  good."  He  summed  up  His  own  work  in 
the  memorable  words  :  "  The  blind  receive  their  sight, 
and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf 
Lear,  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the 
Gospel  preached  to  them."  He  directed  His  disciples, 
"  When  thou  makest  a  feast,  call  not  thy  kinsmen,  nor 
thy  brethren,  nor  thy  rich  neighbors,  lest  they  also  bid 
thee  again,  and  a  recompense  be  made  thee" — a  death- 
blow to  the  customs  of  "  polite  society,"  as  still  adhered 
to  by  the  membership  of  aristocratic  churches  who  visit 
and  receive  only  "  in  our  set,"  and  keep  careful  lists  of 
social  "  indebtedness,"  and  of  those  to  whom  they 
**  owe"  calls.  Then  came  the  positive,  **  But  call  the 
maimed,  the  poor,  the  halt,  and  the  blind,  for  they  can- 
not recompense  thee,  but  thou  shalt  be  recompensed  at 
the  resurrection  of  the  just."  The  Church  has  long 
*^  spiritualized  "  this  as  simply  a  sublime  and  tender 
figure  of  speech,  when  it  becomes  not  nearly  so  spiritual 
as  the  real  doing  of  the  thing  in  the  actual  world.  That 
Jesus  meant  it  in  the  concrete  appears  from  His  own 
action.  The  converted  publican,  Levi,  **  made  Him  a 
great  feast  in  his  own  house  :  and  there  was  a  great  com- 
pany of  publicans  and  of  others  that  sat  down  with  them. 


THE   CHURCH.  421 

But  their  scribes  and  Pharisees  murmured  against  His 
disciples,  saying,  Why  do  ye  eat  and  drink  with  publi- 
cans and  sinners  ?  "  This  was  a  breaking  down  of  social 
distinctions,  an  actual  eating  and  drinking  together  at 
the  same  table.  This  was  the  very  method  of  the  wise 
and  godly  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  in  his  midnight  suppers 
for  the  fallen  women  of  London,  where  he  himself  and 
many  of  the  choicest  Christian  men  and  matrons  of  Eng- 
land met  at  the  same  table  the  outcasts  of  the  streets,  and 
made  the  tract  and  the  prayer  follow  the  supper  and  the 
kindly  talk,  and  followed  up  repentance  with  the  finding 
of  situations  for  honest  work.  When  Jesus  saw  a  hungry 
multitude,  without  waiting  for  the  clamor  for  food  to 
arise,  He  fed  them  with  actual  bread  and  fish.  We 
think  there  are  some  revivalists  of  to-day  who  would 
never  have  thought  of  that,  and  who,  if  their  attention 
had  been  called  to  it,  would  have  answered  :  **  If  these 
people  have  not  provided  for  their  suppers,  I  can't  help 
it.  My  business  is  to  save  souls."  Jesus  seemed  to  see 
no  incompatibility  in  doing  both. 

AYhen  the  great  revival  of  Pentecost  came,  one  of  the 
very  first  results  was  a  system  of  Christian  communism. 
There  are  no  indications  that  this  was  meant  to  be  per- 
manent. Certainly  it  was  not  compulsory.  Ananias 
was  punished,  not  for  keeping  back  his  money,  which 
Peter  told  him  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  do,  but  for  lying 
about  it.  But  this  system  of  the  Pentecostal  time  is 
valuable  as  a  clear  exhibition  of  the  view  of  the  early 
Church,  led  by  inspired  apostles,  that  Christianity  cared 
for  the  bodies  of  men.  Jerusalem  was  full  of  strangers 
improvided  for  so  long  a  stay  ;  and  doubtless  of  converts 
whose  business  and  employment  had  been  interrupted 
by  their  profession  of  Christianity.     While  anybody  in 


422  ECO^'OMICS    OF   PROHIBITION. 

the  Church  owned  anything,  these  needy  ones  must  not 
want,  was  the  grand  resolve  of  that  exalted  day. 

In  after  times  we  find  the  Epistles  full  of  directions 
ior  the  care  of  ''  widows"  and  of  ''the  poor."  Paul 
makes  incessant  calls  upon  the  wealthy  Gentile  converts 
for  contributions  for  ''  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem," 
giving  whole  chapters  to  this  work  in  the  midst  of  his 
expositions  of  the  most  sublime  themes  of  the  Christian 
faith,  and  making  journeys  to  Jerusalem  for  the  express 
purpose  of  carrying  to  its  poor  the  contributions  of  Cor- 
inth and  Ephesus.  The  Apostle  James  says  that  if  a 
brother  or  sister  is  ragged  and  hungry,  and  you  give  liim 
good  wishes  and  nothing  to  eat  or  wear,  that  is  of  no 
use.  These  are  not  the  exact  words,  but  the  thought 
translated  into  the  English  of  to-day.  He  condemns  the 
crowding  of  the  poor  man  into  a  poor  seat  in  church  as 
a  very  worldly  minded  proceeding. 

The  New  Testament  never  forgets  nor  despises  the 
economic  idea,  though  often  eclipsing  it  by  the  glory  of 
a  transcendent  spirituality.  The  Church  has  not  always 
held  the  two  elements  in  due  proportion. 

Christ  brings  the  economic  idea  into  the  solemn 
prophecy  of  the  Judgment  Day  :  ''  Come,  ye  blessed  of 
ray  Father ;  .  .  ,  I  was  a  hungered,  and  ye  gave 
me  meat :  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink  :  I  was  a 
stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in  :  sick  and  in  prison,  and  ye 

visited  me Depart,  ye  cursed,  .  .  .  .  for  I  was 

a  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat  :  thirsty,  and  ye 
gave  me  no  drink  :  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me  not :  sick 
and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited  me  not." 

Who  shall  dare  say  this  is  figurative  in  view  of  what 
Jesus  Himself  did  with  His  own  kingly  hands  ? 

For  the  Church   to  apply  these  ideas  to  the  actual 


THE   CHURCH.  458 

destitution  in  the  rookeries  and  plums  of  our  cities,  to 
the  apple-woman  shivering  on  the  bleak  corner,  who  if 
she  were  your  mother  should  have  a  warm  seat  by  the 
fire  ;  to  the  newsboys,  some  of  whom  ought  to  be  in  the 
nursery,  snatching  their  precarious  living  amid  the  jost- 
ling crowd  in  storm  and  sun,  sleeping  in  doorways  and 
arches  of  bridges  ;  to  the  poor  sewing-girls'  unutterable 
woe  and  heart-breaking  battle,  would  revolutionize  our 
civilization.  Ah  !  if  that  sewing-girl  were  your  sister  or 
your  daughter,  ray  friend,  you  would  leave  business  and 
journey  across  the  continent  to  help  her.  You  w^ould 
work  day  and  night,  and  cut  down  your  own  jiving  to 
the  barest  necessities,  if  need  be,  to  rescue  her  from  the 
dire  destitution  and  awful  temptation  of  her  life.  How 
wmU  it  be  when  we  shall  all  hear  the  ^'  I  was  an  hun- 
gered ''  ? 

There  is  something  wrong  in  a  civilization  that  allows 
all  this  within  sight  of  the  homes  of  wealth,  luxury,  and 
splendor. 

James  Russell  Lowell,  who  has  more  than  once  proved 
himself  prophet  as  well  as  poet,  has  given  us  a  "par- 
able" as  deeply  true  as  it  is  exquisitely  sad  : 

"  Said  Clirist,  our  Lord,  '  I  will  go  and  see 
How  the  men,  My  brethren,  believe  in  Me.' 
He  pa^ed  not  again  through  the  gate  of  birth, 
Bat  made  Himself  known  to  the  children  of  earth. 

■  "  Then  said  the  chief  priests  and  rulers  and  kings, 
'  Behold  now  the  Giver  of  all  good  things. 
Go  to,  let  us  welcome  with  pomp  and  state 
Him  who  alone  is  mighty  and  great.* 

• '  With  carpets  of  gold  the  ground  they  spread, 
Wherev€r  the  Son  of  Mary  should  tread. 
And  in  palace  chambers  lofty  and  rare, 
They  lodged  Him  and  served  Him  with  kingly  fare. 


424  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

**  Great  organs  surged  through  arches  dim 
Their  jubilant  floods  in  praise  of  Him  ; 
And  iu  church  and  paUice  and  judgment  hall. 
He  saw  His  image  over  all. 

**  But  still,  wherever  His  steps  they  led, 
The  Lord  in  sorrow  bent  down  His  head, 
And  from  under  the  heavy  foundation  stones 
The  Son  of  Mary  heard  bitter  groans. 

**  And  in  church  and  palace  and  judgment  hall 
He  marked  great  fissures  that  rent  the  wall, 
And  opened  wider  and  yet  more  wide 
As  the  living  fountain  heaved  and  sighed. 

*'  '  Have  ye  founded  your  thrones  and  altars,  then. 
On  the  bodies  and  souls  of  living  men  ? 
And  think  ye  that  building  shall  endure 
Which  shelters  the  noble  and  crushes  the  poor? 

**  '  With  gates  of  silver  and  bars  of  gold 

Ye  have  fenced  My  sheep  from  My  Father's  fold. 
I  have  heard  the  droppings  of  their  tears 
In  heaven  these  eighteen  hundred  years.* 

"  '  O  Lord  and  Master,  not  ours  the  guilt, 
We  build  but  as  our  fathers  built  ; 
Behold  Thino  images  how  they  stand 
Sovereign  and  sole  through  all  our  land. 

'•  'Onr  task  is  hard,  with  sword  and  flame 
To  hold  Thine  earth  forever  the  same. 
And  with  sharp  crooks  of  steel  to  keep 
Still  as  Thou  leftest  them  Thy  sheep.' 

•*  Then  Christ  sought  out  an  artisan. 
A  low-browed,  stunted,  haggard  man, 
And  a  motherless  girl,  whose  fingers  thin 
Pushed  from  her  faintly  want  and  sin. 

**  These  set  He  in  the  midst  of  them. 
And,  as  they  drew  back  their  garments*  hem 
For  fear  of  defilement,  •  Lo,  here.*  said  He, 
'  The  images  ye  haro  made  of  Me.'  " 


THE    CHURCH.  4'4d 

He  would  be  a  presumptnous  man  who  slioiilcl  claim 
to  be  able  to  tell  all  tliat  the  Church  might  do  to  make 
things  otherwise  ;  but  he  would  be  a  very  shallow  thinker 
who  would  not  admit  that  it  might  do  vastly  more  than 
it  is  now  attempting.  One  long  step  toward  its  possible 
achievements  will  be  for  the  Church  distinctly  to  recog- 
nize that  it  has  an  Economic  Mission. 

Some  conception  of  this  appears  in  the  sending  out  of 
medical  missionaries  to  the  heathen  and  in  such  enter- 
prises as  that  of  Edward  Judson,  going  to  the  poor  where 
they  are,  and  giving  them  not  only  Gospel,  but  drinking 
fountains  and  reading-rooms.  The  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  and  the  Women's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  are  Christian  enterprises  in  the  same  direction, 
though  outside  of  the  organized  Church.  Perhaps  the 
Roman  Catholics  are  here  nearest  to  the  true  ideal  in 
keeping  all  their  charities  in  the  hand  and  name  of  the 
Church.  We  have  rarely  been  more  touched  with  the 
living  worth  of  Christianity  than  in  going,  on  a  recent 
Sunday,  to  the  Chinese  Department  of  the  Baptist  Tab- 
ernacle in  New  York,  and  there  finding  at  little  tables 
all  over  the  room  Christian  American  young  ladies,  each 
with  a  Chinaman  beside  her,  teaching  him  such  things 
as  to  spell  h-a-d,  had,  and  not  to  leave  the  top  of  an 
*'  o  "  open  hi  writing  because  that  would  make  a  *'  v." 
At  the  head  of  the  room  some  cultured  Chinese  gentle- 
men showed  the  results  of  this  patient  toil.  They  deeply 
believed  in  the  Christian  Church,  which  they  had  found 
true  to  the  Master's  words,  **  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye 
took  me  in." 

The  Church  must  address  itself  to  this  Temperance 
problem.  Many  will  reply,  Are  we  not  doing  so  ?  Yes, 
in  a  desultory  and  fragmentary  way.     But  we  will  ask  a 


426  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

return  question,  la  the  Church  doing  anything  compara- 
ble to  the  magnitude  of  the  curse  ? 

AYe  freely  admit  and  highly  honor  its  beneficent  work. 
We  see  a  large  proportion  of  our  churches  total  absti- 
nence societies,  in  which  no  liquor-dealer  nor  liquor 
drinker  can  hold  membership.  We  see  the  ministers 
and  leaders  and  devout  women  of  the  Church  the  life 
and  soul  of  temperance  societies  and  at  the  front  of 
moral  and  political  reform.  We  are  well  assured  that 
there  is  a  vast  sum  of  helpful  service  done  which  is 
known  only  to  God.  We  honor  it  and  rejoice  in  it 
all. 

Yet  we  do  maintain — and  we  beheve  the  deep  response 
of  the  Christian  conscience  will  bear  us  out  in  the  claim 
— that  if  sixty  thousand  men,  or  one  half  that  number, 
were  dying  yearly  in  the  land  from  any  other  single  vice  ; 
if  the  innocent  women  and  tender  children  were  doomed 
in  countless  homes  to  agony  which  the  tongue  has  no 
power  to  tell  nor  the  heart  to  fathom,  by  any  other 
single  curse,  the  Church  would  rise  in  its  might  and 
majesty,  like  the  heaving  of  the  sea,  till  the  throne  of 
God  in  heaven  should  be  reached  by  her  prayers,  and 
the  nations  on  earth  be  moved  as  the  trees  of  a  wood  are 
moved  by  a  mighty  wind.  If  intemperance  is  a  sin,  the 
Son  of  man  is  come  to  save  sinners.  If  the  saloonr  temp- 
tation is  a  crime,  the  Son  of  man  is  come  to  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil.  If  it  is  a  wide  cause  of  innocenl 
Borrow,  the  Son  of  man  is  anointed  to  bind  up  the 
broken  hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives, 

AND  TO  LET  THE  OPPRESSED  GO  FREE. 

When  and  where  should  He  do  all  this  if  not  in  drink- 
cursed  America  now  ?  Here  is  the  Demoniac  struggling 
in  the  plain  whom  He  would  lead  His  followers  down  to 


THE   CHUKCH.  42T 

Bave  from  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  wlioro  tliey 
fain  would  dwell. 

If  there  h  doubt  in  any  one's  mind  whether  the  Church 
should  deal  with  the  liquor  curse,  let  him  know  that  the 
liquor  curse  has  already  come  to  deal  witli  tlie  Church. 

A  correspondent  from  Dayton,  O.,  writes  as  follows  : 

"  The  evils  that  the  saloon  is  producing  were  again  brought  vividly 
to  mind  by  utterances  from  the  pulpit  giving  stalistics  of  its  efifecta 
on  j'oung  men.  It  was  said  that  only  5  per  cent,  of  the  men  between 
fourteen  and  thirty-five  years  of  age  are  in  the  churches  and  Chris- 
tian association.  "Where  are  the  other  95  per  cent.  ?  The  samo 
speaker  said  that  a  very  large  part,  indeed  the  majority,  spend  their 
evenings,  Sundays,  and  spare  time  in  saloons  and  gambling  dens.  Our 
pastor  also  said  that  90  per  cent,  of  our  young  men  frequent  saloons 
and  houses  of  ill.fame.  This  is  appalling,  yet  we  are  assured  by 
Christian  ministers  that  it  is  true. 

"  Ministers  and  laymen  of  our  churches,  it  is  surely  time  to  stop 
and  consider  ;  the  Church  has  been  in  existence  ever  since  the  first 
settlement  of  our  country  ;  the  modern  saloon  is  less  than  fifty  years 
in  our  land  ;  yet  by  carefully  collected  statistics  it  is  shown  that  the 
Church  is  getting  but  five  young  men,  while  the  saloon  is  getting  the 
majority  of  the  ninety-five  who  remain  outside. 

"  The  speaker  said  that  if  the  roofs  could  be  lifted  from  about  ten 
squares  of  our  city,  and  the  fathers  and  mothers  be  permitted  to 
look  in  on  what  is  going  on  there,  they  would  be  filled  with  horror 
at  the  appalling  sight.  The  darling  boys  who  stay  out  late  at  night 
would  be  found  congregated  there  in  dens  of  iniquity,  the  com- 
panions of  thieves  and  gamblers." 

In  such  a  state  of  things  our  appeal  to  the  Church  is, 
not  to  do  something,  hut  to  do  everything — to  strain  to 
the  utmost  every  human  resource,  and  to  bring  down  all 
that  our  compassionate  God  can  give  us  of  the  divine. 
Not  till  we  each  can  say  :  ^'  I  have  done  the  last  and  the 
utmost  that  I  can  do,"  can  we  rest  from  the  conflict 
without  sin. 

In  regard  to  much  of  the  work  which  the  Church  may 
do,  such  as  Gospel  temperance  meetings,  bands  of  hope, 


426  ECONOMICS    or    PUOllllilTlON. 

etc.,  there  is  no  controversy.  But  one  burning  question 
^/femains  beyond,  Shall  the  Church  go  into  politics  ?  Not 
as  a  Church.  That  would  work  evil  in  the  future  greater 
than  all  the  good  it  might  do  in  the  present.  But  the 
Church  should  lay  down  the  divine  line  of  righteousness 
straight  and  clear  along  the  earth.  If  that  line  cuts 
through  political  camps,  it  must  still  be  laid  down  as  un- 
falteringly as  the  railroad  line  that  cuts  the  farmer's 
lands  in  two.  We  must  simply  say,  "  This  is  eight. 
Here  stands  the  Church."  Then,  if  '*  the  heathen 
rage,"  it  will  not  be  the  first  fulfilment  of  the  Master's 
words,  ^'  I  came  not  to  bring  peace,  but  a  sword."  Right 
does  not  cease  to  be  the  province  of  the  Church  because 
it  becomes  also  the  province  of  politics..  In  Cincinnati 
to-day  Sabbath  observance  is  a  hot  political  question. 
The  Fourth  Commandment  is  in  politics.  It  is  claimed 
by  many  that  that  single  question  turned  the  last  State 
election,  throwing  the  dominant  party  out  of  power. 
Must  the  Church  therefore  retire  from  that  ground  ? 
Must  the  ministry  avoid  that  part  of  the  decalogue  in 
their  Scripture  readings,  and  carefully  avoid  preaching  on 
Sabbath- keeping  till  it  has  been  settled  whether  the 
saloon-keepers  shall  ply  their  trade  on  Sunday  or  not  ? 
The  duty  of  the  Church  is  plain.  The  Sabbath  does 
not  cease  to  be  lier  trust  because  politics  has  made  it  its 
battle-grourid.  Rather  the  more  must  she  urge  its  sacred- 
ness  because  it  is  endangered.  Tier  ministry  must  rein- 
force the  sanctions  of  religion  by  urging  the  economics 
of  the  Sabbath,  that  the  hesitating  and  the  wavering  may 
see  that  it  is  a  question  of  worthy  and  happy  living  on 
earth,  as  well  as  of  the  bliss  of  heaven. 

Then  she  may  leave  her  members  as  citizens  to  apply 
the  divine  standards  to  their  political  action,  as  they  shall 


THE    CHUKCK.  4*v'9 

answer  for  it  at  the  bar  of  God  ;  but  solemnly  teach  them 
that  they  eliall  answer  for  their  political  action  at  that 
Bolenm  and  tinul  tribunal. 

Her  ministers  do  not  cease  to  be  citizens.  Outside  the 
church  they  may — and  they  should — speak,  act,  and  vote, 
like  any  other  men,  their  deep  convictions  of  right. 
There  is  in  this  no  "union  of  Church  and  State,"  for 
they  appeal  to  their  fellow-citizens  not  by  any  authority 
they  may  claim  as  pastors,  but  simply  by  the  authority 
which  character,  argument,  and  persuasion  may  give, 
just  as  any  other  citizens  of  equal  worth  and  ability  miglit 
do.  If  they  should  be  silent,  and  by  their  default  the 
Sabbath  should  be  thrown  wide  open  to  intemperance, 
they  could  not  .answer  for  their  silence  as  Christians  to 
their  God,  nor  as  citizens  to  a  wronged  and  degraded 
community. 

The  whole  giant  wrong  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  in  poli-i/^ 
tics.  If  Prohibition  were  to  retire  from  the  political 
Held  the  liquor  traffic  would  stay  there  still,  holding  the 
balance  between  the  great  parties,  and  sending  one  up 
and  the  other  down  in  the  scales,  according  as  either 
would  best  fullil  its  abominable  behest.  If  the  church- 
member  or  the  minister  speaks  any  political  word,  writes 
a  political  line,  or  casts  any  vote  whatever,  he  must  take 
temperance  into  politics.  The  only  question  is,  how  he 
may  take  it  there  most  effectively  and  victoriously.  In- 
tem[>erance  is  in  the  political  field.  The  Christian  citizen 
may  not  shrink  from  meeting  it  there. 

We  speak  of  Christ  as  relying  upon  moral  methods. 
So,  for  the  most  part,  He  did.  But  once  in  His  life  an 
evil  traffic  confronted  Illni.  That  He  assailed  with  the 
strong  hand,  throwing  down  the  tables  of  its  money- 
changers,  and  scourging  them  out  of  the  temple  they 


430  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

had  profaned.  If  ever  any  money-changers'  tables 
should  be  overthrown  it  is  these,  whose  every  coin  is 
dripping  with  blood  and  tears.  If  ever  there  was  time 
and  place  for  the  scourge  it  is  against  this  traffic,  which 
sells  not  doves,  but  men, — to  drive  it  out  from  this 
fair  land,  reserved  for  centuries  in  the  providence  of  God 
to  be  for  all  nations  a  liouse  of  prayer,  which  it  is  fast 
making  a  den  of  thieves. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

CITIES  AND    IMMIGRANTS. 

••  Thomas  Carlyle  predicted  that  all  great  modern  cities  will  come 
finally  to  the  position  in  which  Paris  was  under  the  Commune,  un- 
less the  reputable  side  of  society  organizes  itself  aggressively  to 
counteract  the  dangers  which  make  universal  suflrage  a  peril.  I 
stood  lately  among  the  ruins  of  the  public  buildings  burned  by  the 
mob  in  Cincinnati.  I  remember  the  railway  riots  of  1877.  We  are 
performing  an  experiment,  not  only  in  the  face  of  the  whole  world, 
bat  for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  earth.  It  is  for  Americans,  who 
believe  in  government-  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the 
people,  to  see  that  such  government  is  made  so  wise  and  strong  as 
not  to  perish  from  the  earth.  There  is  growing  up  in  the  liquor 
traffic  a  power  that  already  has  its  clutches  on  our  throats  ;  and  a 
loss  of  time  in  organizing  national  reform  may  be  the  loss  forever  of 
an  opportunity  to  save  our  nation  from  being  wrecked  by  municipal 
misrule.  Tlierefore,  for  one,  I  pray  God  to  send  us  such  a  recrystal- 
lization  of  politics. as  shall  throw  all  the  best  elements  of  society  into 
a  National  Keform  FixTty,"  —Joseph  Cook. 

**  Whiskey  is  the  d^^namite  of  civilization." — Hon.  John  D.  Long,  of 
MassachusetiSf  speech  against  Bonded  Whiskey  Bill. 

What  shall  we  do  with  our  cities,  and  what  shall  we 
do  with  our  immigrants  ? 

Two  tremendous  questions,  and  in  them  the  future  of 
the  Republic  ! 

I.  With  one-fourth  of  our  population  in  the  cities, 
with  the  steadily  increasing  drift  toward  them,  with  the 
field  and  immunity  they  give  to  the  vicious  classes,  and 
the  self-degrading  tendencies  which  so  rapidly  multiply 
the  number  of  the  vicious  already  there,  thoughtful  men 


432  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

are  coming  to  hold  their  hreath  at  the  menace  to  our 
ci  vilization.  The  most  startling  element  in  the  case  is  that 
so  many  leading  men— successful  politicians,  editors  of 
great  dailies  and  of  widely  read  magazines,  distinguished 
lawyers,  eminent  clergymen,  have  practically  given  up 
the  problem.  They  take  it  for  granted  that  the  Sunday 
theatre,  the  seven-day  saloon,  the  beer  garden  and  the 
brothel,  the  ward  pohtician,  the  bummer,  the  heeler, 
and  the  daily  murder  *'have  come  to  stay" — a  cant 
phrase  which,  if  anything  is  awkward,  unpopular,  or 
dangerous  to  deal  with,  is  supposed  to  relieve  the  soul 
of  all  responsibility  for  letting  it  go  on.  If  any  law  is 
proposed  which  would  effectually  restrain  any  of  these 
things,  they  answer  w'ith  the  greatest  promptness,  '*  You 
can  never  enforce  it  in  the  cities."     That  is,  it  is  claimed 

that  THE  CITIES  HAVE  ALREADY  PASSED  OUT  OF  THE  CONTROL 

OF  THE  REPUBLIC,  and  that  the  people  at  large  are  at  their 
mercy,  to  pass  only  such  laws  as  their  worst  classes  will 
not  object  to.  The  statement  seems  a  terrible  one  when 
put  into  plain  words  ;  but  the  best  thing  to  do  with  any 
idea  is  to  put  it  into  plain  words,  that  we  may  know 
whether  we  believe  it,  and,  if  we  do,  what  are  we  going 
to  do  about  it. 

City  domination  has  been  often  tried  in  history,  and, 
in  every  case,  disastrously.  When  Rome  sucked  in  all 
the  8(»rength  and  riches  of  the  provinces,  so  that  whoever 
was  master  of  Rome  was  master  of  the  empire,  the  em- 
pire became  not  worth  maintaining.  Feudalism,  though 
a  system  of  disintegration,  was  a  gain  by  multiplying 
centres  of  influence,  and  distributing  power.  When  the 
French  kings  reversed  the  process,  and  drew  all  the 
nobility  from  their  estates  to  reside  at  court,  till  it  could 
be  said,    **  Paris   is   France,"    they    prepared  the  way 


CITIES   AXD    IMMIGRANTS.  433 

for  the  Revolution.  The  Revolution  was  what  it  was 
largely  because  all  who  determined  its  destinies  could  be 
drawn  together  by  the  midnight  bells  of  Paris.  Splen- 
did cities  and  helpless  peasantry  work  ill  for  any  nation. 
To  have  the  rural  districts  held  by  a  sturdy,  intelligent, 
honest  yeomanry,  compelling  laws  which  city  as  well  as 
country  must  obey,  is  the  condition  of  safety  and  stabil- 
ity. If  our  cities  control  us  they  will  destroy  us,  be- 
cause their  worst  elements  govern  them.  ^ 

The  life  of  the  city  is  essentially  artificial.  Its  inhab- 
itants have  little  knowledge  of  the  farmers'  needs,  and 
less  sympathy  for  them.  But  to  legislate  against  the  in- 
terests of  agriculture  is  to  cut  the  roots  of  national  pros- 
perity. At  last  we  all  depend  on  the  farmer.  *^  The 
king  himself  is  served  by  the  field."  Government  by 
cities  tends  always  to  prostrate  agriculture  and  to  de- 
grade the  agricultural  classes  from  a  yeomanry  into  a 
peasantry.  Then  the  country  becomes  a  hollow  shell, 
with  some  centres  of  magnificence  rattling  around  in  it. 

Within  the  city  the  worst  elements  have  exceptional  ^ 
power.  A  few  roughs  cannot  control  a  rural  village. 
They  are  opposed  and  discounted  at  every  turn.  A 
thing  is  at  once  resisted  which  they  are  observed  to 
favor.  One  substantial  farmer  by  a  dozen  words  from 
his  wagon-seat  can  spoil  a  month's  intrigue  of  such  a 
clique.  The  climate  does  not  agree  with  them.  But 
scrape  them  out  of  a  thousand  villages,  and  pile  them  in 
the  city  ten  stories  deep,  and  the  grains  which,  if  sepa- 
rate, might  flash  harmlessly,  combine  into  a  mine  of 
tremendous  explosive  power.  It  is  very  doubtful 
whether  the  best  elements  of  the  city,  unaided,  can  at- 
tain a  unity  equal  to  the  consolidation  of  this  vicious 
force,  and  a  steadiness  equal  to  its  fury.      So  far,  at  least. 


434  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

thej'  are  not  doing  it.  The  better  classes  of  the  cities 
must  be  re-enforced  bj  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  the 
rural  districts,  in  order  to  control  their  own  dangerous 
classes.  Even  as  we  write,  one  of  our  religious  weeklies 
comes  with  an  appeal  of  *' Help  for  Cincinnati" — in 
view  of  the  general  defiance  there  of  Sabbath  laws,  and 
most  others.  It  pleads  for  the  virtue  and  intelligence 
of  the  State  to  aid  them  through  the  Legislature  in  their 
contest,  saying  :  *'  Help  can  only  come  from  the  State." 
The  plea  is  good.  The  city  needs  t"he  help  of  every  true 
heart,  hand,  and  vote  in  all  the  rural  districts  in  order 
to  redeem  itself. 

How  can  the  tendency  to  dangerous  centralization  in 
the  cities  be  checked  ?  How  can  the  domination  of  the 
worst  classes  in  the  city  over  city  and  country  alike  be 
ended  ?  To  answer  these  questions,  we  must  ask  two 
others  : 
/  1.  What  is  the  deadliest  way  in  which  the  city  sucks 
the  life-blood  of  the  country  ?  The  answer  is,  by  taking 
its  grain  and  giving  it  back  intoxicants  ;  by  bringing  its 
brawn  and  brain  to  staggering  imbecility.  Every  man 
80  spoiled  is  a  loss  to  the  producing  power  of  the  coun- 
try, and  a  probable  recruit  to  the  dangerous  classes  in 
the  city — a  double  weight  in  the  wrong  scale.  Prohibi- 
tion of  the  liquor  traffic,  while  it  might  not  at  once  stop 
the  sale  in  the  city,  could  at  once  blot  out  the  distillery 
and  brewery,  and  thus  keep  the  city  from  fattening  on 
the  ruin  of  the  country,  and  breeding  there  festering 
sores  whose  drip  must  return  upon  its  own  vitals.  Pro- 
hibition Iwifi  had  not  quite  six  years  of  bitterly  disputed 
control  in  Iowa,  but  now  the  news  comes  that  the  great 
Arensdorf  brewery  at  Siotix  City  is  being  fitted  up  for 
an  oatmeal  factory.     Spread  the   consumption  of   oat- 


CITIES    AND    IMMIGRANTS.   .  436 

meal  !  A  rural  population  without  a  saloon,  a  tippler, 
or  a  drunkard,  will  have  that  ascendency  in  State  and 
national  life  which  vtrtue  and  intelligence  always  give. 
They  can  not  only  protect  themselves,  but  bring  aid  to 
the  beleaguered  city. 

2.  What  is  the  great  focus  of  destruction  in  the  city  ? 
There  is  one  instant  answer — the  saloon.  If  the  ques- 
tion is  of  Anarchy,  the  saloons  are  the  Anarchists'  gather- 
ing places  ;  if  of  crime,  the  saloons  are  the  criminals' 
resorts.  If  a  criminal  is  evading  justice,  the  police  watch 
the  saloons  for  him,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  find  him 
tliere.  The  saloon  demoralizes  by  more  tlian  the  liquor 
that  is  drunk.  The  language  that  is  heard,  the  stories 
that  are  told,  the  company  that  is  kept,  the  rehearsal  of 
crime,  the  familiarity  of  villainy,  the  freemasonry  of 
vice,  combined  with  the  heating  of  the  brain  and  the 
deadening  of  the  liner  sensibiHties  by  alcohol,  are  con- 
stantly bringing  the  better  class  of  young  men  who  fre- 
quent them  down  toward  the  level  of  the  lower  and  the 
lowest.  The  saloons  are  constantly  recruiting  the  ranks 
of  the  vicious  classes  from  the  ranks  of  the  better  classes. 
How  can  the  better  classes  protect  themselves  against 
this  steady  desertion  from  their  own  ranks  and  this 
steady  re-enforcement  of  the  enemy  ?  They  must  call 
in  the  help  of  the  country.  This  is  no  question  of  the 
country  against  the  city,  but  of  the  country  helping  the 
best  part  of  the  city  against  the  worst.  The  better  part 
is  the  true  city  ;  the  rest  an  accretion  we  endure  because 
we  cannot  get  rid  of  it.  It  is  as  if  the  worst  classes  had 
risen  in  riot  and  the  troops  of  the  country  were  called  in 
to  suppress  it — not  to  capture  the  city,  but  to  protect  it 
Against  an  internal  foe.  The  better  classes  of  the  city 
must  welcome  the  aid.     When  the  country  is  demanding 


./ 


436  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHICITIOX. 

Prohibition,  let  no  one  raise  the  objection  of  ''  It  can't  be 
enforced  in  the  city."  It  can  in  the  country,  and  that 
is  so  much  to  start  with.  In  the  city,  too,  a  part  of  its 
enforcement  begins  from  the  instant  of  its  enactment, 
making  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  liquor  an  outlawed 
business,  driving  capital  out  of  it,  making  insurance 
companies  shy  of  it,  making  its  debts  uncollectible. 
Then,  the  weakest  enforcement  operates  as  a  first-class 
**  restriction,"  driving  the  saloon  from  the  open  street 
to  alleys  and  cellars,  where  self-respecting  young  men — 
those  best  worth  saving — will  not  go  after  it. 

Every  year  brings  Prohibition  boys  from  the  country  to 
be  rising  men  in  the  city,  and  makes  the  enforcement  of 
Prohibition  constantly  easier  when  once  begun.  Pro- 
hibition is  a  screw.  Once  well  set,  it  is  only  necessary 
to  keep  turning  the  handle,  and  the  pressure  grows  every 
moment  more  irresistible.  The  longer  it  is  turned  on, 
the  more  determined  the  people  are  not  to  have  it  turned 
back,  but  to  keep  twisting  the  handle  further  round. 
Thus,  ex-Governor  Martin  says  that,  at  the  recent  elec- 
tion in  Kansas,  **  no  political  party  ventured  even  to  offer 
a  resolution  in  favor  of  reopening  the  question."  The 
city  can  control  its  foreign  population  when  it  can  keep 
them  sober  ;  and  when  the  police  do  not  have  to  watch 
saloons,  they  will  be  in  better  condition  to  watch  every- 
thing else.  The  country  can  help  the  city  to  do  this. 
The  country  has  a  stake  in  the  city  as  great  as  the  num- 
ber of  its  bright  boys  and  girls  sure  to  go  there.  It  has 
a  light  to  demand  a  voice  in  shaping  the  city's  destiny 
for  virtue  and  temperance.  The  State  must  control  the 
city,  like  every  other  foot  of  its  territory,  in  the  interest 
of  all  the  people.  When  the  country  can  help  the  city 
to  Prohibition,  it  can  help  it  to  everything  else  necessary 


CITIES   AND    IMMIGRANTS.  437 

to  an  honest,  clean,  safe  administration  of  government, 
till  the  citv  shall  cease  to  be  '^  a  menace  to  civilization." 
Nothing  so  mnch  as  Prohibition  can  enable  us  to  con- 
trol, purify,  and  redeem  the  ^*  shims"  of  the  city.  The 
Cleveland  Press  remarks  : 

♦♦Perhaps  tho  woik  of  Jack  the  Kipper  may  be  the  canse  of  some 
good  work  which  he  has  not  contemplated.  The  degradation  of 
Whitechapel  is  only  what  might  be  expected  in  a  population  which 
is  compelled  to  live  in  a  condition  of  brutal  degradation.  That  such 
dens  as  those  of  Whitechapel  should  exist  in  a  civilized  land  is  a 
mockery  of  the  very  idea  of  civilization.  On  this  subject  the  public 
mind  is  now  thoroughly  aroused,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  tiiat  the  result 
will* be  seen  in  a  clean  sweep  of  the  whole  district.  The  science  of 
human  life  has  only  begun  to  be  a  science,  and  it  will  continue  to  be 
nothing  better  than  impracticable  speculation  nntil  it  is  applied  to  the 
problem  of  the  life  of  the  poor  in  the  great  cities  to  which  popula- 
tion crowds  in  these  times.  We  know  now  that  the  epidemic  dis- 
eases, the  plagues,  and  the  enormous  death-rates  of  former  ages  were 
caused  by  ignorance  and  carelessness.  We  have  got  rid  of  the  igno- 
rance ;  it  is  high  time  that  we  rose  out  of  the  carelessness.  It  is 
time,  too,  that  we  should  realize  the  fact  that  epidemics  of  crime- 
may  have  their  cause  in  unsound  sanitary  conditions  as  well  as  in 
other  things.  It  is  a  fact  that  cleanliness,  if  it  does  not  always  prove 
godliness,  at  least  conduces  powerfully  to  decency.  Decent  living 
makes  decent  people  ;  and  where  decent  living  is  impossible,  decent 
people  need  not  be  looked  for.  For  its  oicn  sake  society  has  an  in- 
terest in  the  possibility  of  decent  living  to  all  its  members.  If  one- 
half,  or  even  one-fifth,  of  the  money  expended  on  converting  the 
heathen  were  applied  to  the  solution  of  these  pressing  home  affairs, 
the  face  of  many  great  cities,  and  ultimately  of  all,  would  soon  begin 
to  wear  a  different  aspect !' ' 

We  shall  not  need,  however,  to  do  less  for  tho  heathen, 
and  stint  the  pitiful  ^5, 000, 000  which  all  our  Ameiican 
Christendom  gives  to  save  the  whole  heathen  world. 
Only  stop  using  our  $1,000,000,000  to  make  heathen  at 
home,  and  we  can  build  model  lodging-houses,  lay  out 
wide,  clean,  well-lighted  streets,  care  for  the  women  in 


438  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

homes  and  the  children  in  schools,  build  churches  and 
chapels  and  set  up  mission  Sunday-schools,  and  make 
these  waste  places  of  our  civilization  blossom  like  the 
garden  of  the  Lord. 

II.  Immigration  is  denationalizing  us,  un-American- 
izing  us.  We  have  to  stop  and  think  to  know  whetiier 
we  are  ourselves,  and  the  rush  is  so  great  we  haven't  the 
time  to  stop.  "We  are  laying  the  foundations  of  empire, 
and  laying  them  as  building  materials  are  dropped  out 
of  a  cyclone.  We  want  not  to  stop  immigration,  but  to 
sift  it  ;  to  have  the  wheat  of  honesty,  industry,  muscle, 
intelligence,  and  religion  dropped  on  our  shores,  and  the 
chaff  of  ignorance,  degradation,  filth,  vice,  and  crime 
blown  back  across  the  sea.  For  this  purpose,  national 
Prohibition  will  be  an  unequalled  sieve. 

Mr.  D.  W.  Gage,  of  Cleveland,  writes  in  the  New 
Era : 

"  ComiDR  from  Chicago  to  Cleveland,  I  met  on  the  train  an  old 
Republican  friend  and  ex-senator  of  the  Ohio  Legislature.  He  had 
been  taking  a  tour  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  had  been  southwest 
through  Kansas  and  northwest  through  Wisconsin.  Said  he,  *  I  can 
tell  just  as  soon  us  I  enter  a  Chicago  depot  and  look  over  the  crowd 
of  travellers,  especially  the  emigrants,  where  they  are  going— whether 
to  Kansas  or  Wisconsin.  You  "will  see  the  clean,  well-dressed,  neat, 
intelligent  classes,  who  use  no  liquor  and  little  tobacco,  going  toward 
Kansas,  and  the  ignorant,  poorer  clad,  unshaved  and  wooden  shod, 
with  breath  odorous  of  beer  and  whiskey,  going  toward  Wisconsin.' 
He  recognized  the  cause  in  Kansas  as  a  Prohibition  State  and  Wis- 
consin as  a  license  State." 

Let  Prohibition  cover  all  our  territory,  and  it  will  be 
heralded  over  the  sea.  Then  the  criminal,  the  crook, 
the  tippler  who  is  *'  never  drunk,"  but  if  ever  sober 
thinks  he  is  sick,  and  hurries  to  take  something  **  as  a 
medicine,"  the  Anarchists  and  the  Lazzaroni,  will  keep 


CITIES    AXD    IMMIGRANTS.  439 

away  from  a  land  where  they  can  never  again  get  a 
square  drink.  But  the  sober,  the  diligent,  tlie  saving, 
the  virtuous,  even  from  hands  where  drinking  usages 
prevail,  will  recognize  the  hope  that  is  in  our  better 
way.  Many  a  father  who  dr'nks  in  England  will  be 
glad  of  the  gain  to  his  boys  in  bringing  thetn  to  a  land 
where  they  will  not  drink.  Many  a  wife  will  use  wom- 
an's quiet  influence  to  get  the  yet  unspoiled  husband  to 
a  land  where  he  may  achieve  his  best  and  be  saved  from 
sinking  to  his  worst.  Prohibition  would  enable  us  to 
pick  the  best  elements  from  all  the  nations.  Its  sifting 
would  shape  the  coming  centuries  and  mould  the  very 
race-type  of  the  future,  incorporating  with  our  stock  the 
choicest  life-blood  of  every  people.  "What  is  called  the 
'*  one  narrow  issue"  of  Prohibition  is  equal  to  the  solu- 
tion of  some  of  our  gravest  problems,  and  to  the  widest 
view  of  public  welfare  and  national  destiny. 

What  do  we  wish  our  immigrants  to  be  ?  Do  we  want 
German  provinces,  Irish  colonies,  Scandinavian  counties, 
and  Italian  wards  to  make  us  a  polyglot  nation,  and  lay 
out  on  the  American  Continent  a  new  map  of  Europe, 
with  all  the  old  prejudices,  hatreds,  and  feuds  of  the 
ages  past  ?  Do  we  want  a  Clan-na-Gael  running  a  gov- 
ernment inside  of  our  Government,  with  its  own  courts, 
trials,  and  executions?  No.  We  want  Americans,  all 
speaking  one  language,  all  holding  our  land  their  coun- 
try, and  centring  in  it  all  their  loyalty,  their  sympathies, 
and  their  hopes.  We  want  their  children  to  hold  this 
their  native  country  and  their  fatherland. 

There  is  a  good  deal  in  the  funny  story  of  the  English 
settler  and  his  American-born  boy.  The  boy  proposed 
to  celebrate  ''the  Fourth,"  and  his  father  asked, 
'*  What  do  you  care  for  the  Fourth  of  July  ?''     **  Why, 


440  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

that's  the  day  we  whipped  you,  pa,"  was  the  answer. 
We  want  every  American-born  boy  and  girl  to  be  born 
into  all  our  American  history  and  institutions.  "We 
would  make  of  all  these  mingled  nations  one  American 
people,  the  noblest  and  most  glorious  the  world  ever  saw. 
>  We  would  have  our  immigrants  ask,  not  how  they  can 
[/  mould  us  to  the  customs  of  their  forefathers  in  the  lands 
from  whose  oppression  they  are  fleeing,  but  how  they 
can  mould  tliemselves  to  the  institutions  that  have  made 
America  so  free  and  grand.  We  would  have  them  not 
looking  back  over  the  sea,  but  forward  to  the  possible 
advance  of  America's  future,  to  a  civilization  better  and 
richer  than  they  or  we  have  known. 

The  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  take  intemperance,  with 
all  its  waste  of  money,  its  disorder,  pauperism,  and  crime 
out  of  their  path  as  well  as  ours,  and  make  the  children 
of  all  one  new  people  never  touched  by  the  curse  of  the 
ealoon. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


••  Slavery  and  alcohoj  are  the  twin  curses  of  the  Dark  Continent. 
Surely  America  will  not  be  laggard  in  seconding  the  efforts  of  any 
Christian  power  whatever,  whether  in  England  or  Germany,  which 
will  address  itself  in  earnest  to  the  task  of  their  complete  suppres- 
sion. Professor  Drummond  has  appealed  for  our  aid  in  stemming 
the  encroachments  of  slave-hunting  Arabs  in  Central  Africa.  But 
while  the  Mohammedan  religion  permits  one  form  of  slavery  it  does 
not  permit  another,  and  of  the  two  the  worse.  Turks  and  Arabs  are 
total  abstainers  from  intoxicants.  Shall  we,  as  a  Christian  nation, 
have  longer  any  part  or  lot  in  the  infliction  upon  Africa  of  a  kind  of 
slavery  which  ruins  both  body  and  soul,  and  wrenks  not  merely  tem- 
porary, but  eternity-long  disaster  ?" — Illustrated  Christian  Weekly. 

The  tablet  on  wliicli  I  am  writins:  lias  on  its  cover  a 
picture  of  llolnnson  Crusoe  under  a  burning  southern 
sky,  dressed  from  head  to  foot  in  thick  furs,  while  he 
holds  over  his  head  a  heavy  feather  umbrella.  It  seems 
never  to  have  occurred  to  the  novelist  nor  to  his  thou- 
sands of  boy  readers  that  this  costume  would  be  warm. 
The  description  is  an  unconscious  testimony  to  the  civil- 
ized man's  idea  that  dress  is  a  necessity  to  human  dignity 
and  propriety,  even  when  one  civilized  man  constitutes 
the  entire  population  of  a  tropical  island.  Jn  fact,  what- 
ever certain  travellers  may  say  of  the  guileless  simplicity 
of  savages,  all  the  people  who  have  ever  done  anj'thing 
that  history  has  thought  worth  recording  have  been 
those  who  wore  clothes.     The  first  step  of  the  newly- 


442  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

discovered  African  up  from  barbarism  will  be  when  lie 
shall  cease  to  be 

"  The  naked  Ethiop  panting  at  the  line." 

Ill  that  latitude  he  will  not  clothe  himself  in  the  skins 
of  beasts,  wild  or  tame,  Robinson  Crusoe  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  His  own  rude  manufactures  will  not 
furnish  him  much  worthy  the  name  of  clothing.  It  is 
only  the  products  of  civilized  looms,  light  enough  not  to 
be  a  burden,  bright  enough  to  be  attractive',  cheap 
enough  to .  be  washed  and  changed  often  and  replaced 
when  worn  out,  that  can  ever  bring  such  a  people  up  the 
first  step  from  barbarism  to  civilization. 

There  are  fifty  millions  of  such  in  the  Congo  basin 
alone.  All  is  open  to  trade  as  soon  as  the  railroad  is 
built  around  Livingstone  Falls.  What  a  demand  for  the 
cotton  cloth  of  the  Birminghams,  Manchesters,  and 
Lowells  is  here  !  By  the  time  this  vast  population  should 
approximate  the  civilization  of  the  Hindus,  Burmans, 
and  Karens,  the  demand  for  cotton  cloth  alone  would  be 
not  less  than  ,§50,000, 000  annually.  Missionaries  testify 
that  this  is  one  of  the  first  and  most  striking  advances " 
made  by  the  natives  who  come  under  the  influence  of 
Christianity. 

What  is  the  effect  of  intoxicating  liquors  upon  this 
demand  ?  What  is  its  effect  in  civilized  lands  ?  Where 
law,  custom,  inherited  disposition  and  winters  of  cruel 
cold  unite  to  demand  abundant  clothing,  the  entire  trend 
of  alcohol  is  toward  nakedness.  The  ragged  man, 
scarcely  within  the  limits  of  mere  decency  ;  the  shivering 
woman  with  a  summer  dress  on  an  Arctic  day  ;  the  children 
barefooted  on  the  icy  streets,  are  the  familiar  results  of 
intoxicating  drink  in  civilized  lands.     !N'ow  try  it  on  the 


THi:  devil's  foreign  mission.  443 

Equatorial  savage,  where  custom,  heredity,  and  climate 
unite  to  make  costume  the  most  dispensable  of  all  human 
needs,  and  what  is  the  result  ?  Rev.  James  Johnson, 
the  native  pastor  of  the  island  of  Lagos,  says  : 

•'As  you  stand  nt  Lagos  j'ou  can  seo  fleets  of  canoes  laden  with 
casks  of  palm-oil,  nuts,  and  other  produce.  But  when  they  are  re- 
turning home,  what  do  they  carry  away  with  them?  Very  few  pieces 
of  cloth;  every  one  of  them  is  laden  with  rum  and  gin.  We  give 
Europe  palm-oil  and  many  other  useful  things  ;  but  what  does  she 
give  us  in  return?  This  vile  stuff;  this  spirit  which  sends  our 
people  drunken  and  mad. 

******** 

"A  friend  mentioned  to  me  lately  thut  a  member  of  a  Glasgow 
firm  stated  to  him  that  ha  formerly  employed  a  largo  number  of 
looms  weaving  cloth  for  the  African  market  ;  novsr  he  has  not  one. 
A  trader  in  the  Calabar  River  wrote  recently  to  his  principals  to  send 
no  more  cloth — drink  was  the  article  in  demand.  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson, 
in  his  recent  journey  into  the  Niger  regions,  found  this  evil  so 
abounding  therein,  that  it  will  render  hopeless  the  demand,  anticipated 
by  some,  by  the  natives,  for  unliyniled  supplies  of  calico,  as  effectually 
as  will  ihe  sterility  of  the  Eastern  countries  through  which  he 
formerly  travelled.  In  all  its  effects,  moral  and  economical,  this 
traflfic  is  only  evil  ;  impeding  the  work  of  the  Church  at  home, 
marring  her  mission  work  abroad,  and  destroying  beneficial  indus- 
try." * 

Mr.  Johnson  himself  states  :f 

*'  At  each  port  of  call  the  eye  becomes  bewildered  in  watching  the 
discharge  of  thousands  of  cases  of  gin,  hundreds  of  demijohns  of 
rum,  box  upon  box  of  guns,  untold  kegs  of  gunpowder,  and  myriads 
of  clay  pipes,  while  it  seems  as  if  only  by  accident  a  stray  bale  of 
cloth  went  over  the  side." 

Mr.  W,  P.  Tisdcl,  special  agent  of  the  United  States 
to  the  Congo,  says  : 

"  Unfortunately  a  few  gallons  of  trade  gin  will  go  further  in  trade 


*  ••  Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade,"  by  Canon  Farrar,  pp.  24,  26. 
f  Ibid.,  p.  31. 


444  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

with  the  natives  than  ten  times  its  value  in  cloth,  and  it  often  hap- 
pens that  traders  are  compelled  to  return  to  the  coast  without  having 
accomplished  a  trade  because  the  natives  insist  upon  having  gin, 
while  the  trader  was  supplied  with  cloth  alone." 

The  submission  of  our  makers  of  cotton  goods  in  allow- 
ing the  alcoholic  trade  to  close  in  their  faces  the  market 
of  a  continent: — the  one  new  door  of  the  world — is  su- 
premely astonishing.  We  should  expect  that  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  Congress 
would  be  flooded  with  petitions  and  demands  from  the 
great  cotton  industry  against  this  spoliation.  It  may  be 
eaid,  without  doubt,  that  if  any  foreign  power  had  for- 
bidden our  cotton  manufacturers  the  ports  of  Africa,  we 
would  go  into  a  new  *'  War  of  1812"  sooner  than  allow 
it.  The  South  would  be  hot  as  the  North  for  it,  for  the 
shutting  out  of  millions  of  yards  of  cloth  means  the  loss 
of  a  market  for  thousands  of  bales  of  cotton.  It  is  only 
the  wonderful  liquor  traffic  which  can  thus  sit  down  on 
a  vast  manufacture,  and  not  a  voice  from  the  mercantile 
world  be  raised  against  it.  Mr.  Hornaday,  in  his  "  Free 
Rum  on  the  Congo,"  says  :* 

"Why,  if  there  were  only  a  feio  millions  of  money  to  be  made  hy  en- 
forcing temperance  in  Africa,  there  would  be  ten  thousand  capitalists 
clamoring  at  the  doors  of  Congress  to-morrow  for  the  exclusive  privi- 
lege of  performing  the  task.  What  is  more,  every  company  bidding 
for  the  privilege  would  be  ready  to  deposit  $10,000,00{»  as  a  guarantee 
of  success,  to  be  forfeited  in  case  of  failure.  If  the  mujhiy  <k>llar  was 
only  there,  there  would  be  no  need  to  raise  a  temperance  army  by 
conscription  ;  we  should  be  overwhelmed  with  volunteers." 

Well,  the  miglity  dpllar  w  there,  if  our  manufacturers 
could  only  be  got  to  open  their  eyes  to  see  it. 

The  objection  will  be  raised  by  some  that  the  negroes 

♦  P.  lie. 


THK    DEVII/S    FOREIGN    MISSION.  445 

would  not  work  without  it  and  would  not  buy  other 
things  anyway  if  they  did  not  have  the  liquor.  But  this 
objection  has  had  a  practical  answer.  Mr.  Ilornaday 
supplies  the  following  interesting  facts  : 

••  Notwithstauding  the  assertions  of  the  traders,  of  Mr.  Tisdel,  and 
even  Mr.  Stanley  himself,  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  trade  with 
the  natives  without  rum  or  gin,  we  have  now  most  positive  proof 
that  a  large  and  profitable  business  can  be  done  without  the  agency 
of  a  single  drop  of  liquor.  There  is  one  English  trading  company, 
having  twelve  stations  between  the  coast  and  the  region  of  the  great 
lakes,  which  finds  it  not  only  possible  but  profitable  to  get  along 
without  poisoning  or  debauching  the  natives.  Says  the  Loudon 
Times: 

••  •  During  the  eight  years  in  which  the  company  has  extended  the 
ramifications  of  its  trade  over  this  immense  distance,  it  has  proved 
that  it  is  possible  to  trade  in  india  rubber,  wax,  oil  seeds,  and  ivory 
to  an  enormous  amount  without  defiling  the  list  of  their  barter  goods 
■with  a  single  keg  of  trade  rum,  or  the  all-representative  ••  square- 
face"  of  the  West  Coast  trade.  It  is  something  to  have  established 
proof  before  us  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  carry  rum  and  desolation, 
headed  up  in  Hamburg  casks  and  Dutch  gin  bottles,  to  a  new  coun- 
try, before  you  can  hope  to  see  tusks  and  dividends.  The  Messrs. 
Moir,  who  are  entrusted  with  the  concerns  of  the  company,  testify 
that  they  have  already  exported  40,815  pounds  of  ivory,  and  not  im- 
ported a  glass  of  spirits.'  "* 

The  destruction  of  the  nativ^es  has  also  its  economic 
side.  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  for  white  men  to  live 
on  the  Lower  Congo.  It  is  not  certain  that  they  can 
work  like  the  natives  anywhere  in  the  country.  Cer- 
tainly the}'  cannot  for  any  such  wages.  There  never  was 
a  more  short-sighted  view  of  the  interests  of  commerce 
than  that  which  supposes  that  the  way  to  make  money 
out  of  foreign  peoples  is  to  strip  them,  impoverish  them, 
and  destroy  them  off  the  face  of  the  earth.     That  is  the 


"  Free  Rum  on  the  Congo,"  p.  73. 


446  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

old  barbarian  idea  of  Cortes  and  Pizarro.  All  that 
Mexico  and  Peru  were  good  for,  in  their  opinion,  was  to 
plunder  them  of  their  gold  and  silver  plates,  crowns  and 
jewels,  then  work  the  natives  to  death  in  gangs  in  mines 
and  on  plantations — never  mind  how  fast  they  died. 
Even  Columbus  did  not  wholly  rise  above  this  idea,  and 
one  cause  of  his  downfall  was  that  he  alienated  the  gentle 
Isabella  by  his  persistence  in  enslaving  the  natives  against 
her  protest.  The  outcome  was  almost  equal  disaster  to 
the  conquered  and  the  conquerors.  The  gorgeous  bar- 
barian civilization  of  the  Montezumas  and  the  Incas  was 
destroyed,  and  nothing  given  to  take  its  place,  while 
Spain,  after  a  brief  blaze  of  extravagant  splendor,  be- 
came poorer  and  weaker  than  before  Columbus  set  sail. 
In  the  northern  part  of  North  America,  on  the  contrary, 
the  English,  French,  and  Dutcli  colonists  came  with  no 
other  idea  than  that  of  working  a  subsistence  out  of  the 
stubborn  soil  and  making  money  by  thrifty  trade  in  furs 
and  other  native  products  that  are  collected  with  toil  and 
hardship.  The  solid  prosperity  of  the  Northern  States 
and  Canada  show  the  superior  excellence  of  this  method 
on  mere  economic  grounds. 

Now  the  United  States  are  just  awaking  to  tho  eco- 
nomic  possibilities  of  their  American  neighbors.  But 
all  our  iiopes  of  wealth  there  now  are  by  helping  them 
with  capital  and  inventions  and  transportation  to  bring 
out  the  full  working  power  of  the  people  and  the  natural 
riches  which  their  soil  may  yield  to  labor.  We  have 
come  to  sec  that  the  simple  old  expedient  of  hard  work, 
as  in  .^sop's  fable  of  the  vineyard — work  sufficiently 
encouraged  and  well  directed,  may  find  riches  there 
beyond  the  Spani!*li  conquerors'  dreams.  To  get  those 
riches  we  would  not  destroy  the  people,   nor  degrade 


THE    devil's    foreign    MISSION.  447 

them,  nor  rob  them,  for  that  woiihl  spoil  their  working 
and  producing  and  buying  power,  and  so  "  kill  the  goose 
that  lays  the  golden  eggs.''^ 

The  Roman  Empire  was  far  from  an  ideal  government, 
but  was,  up  to  its  day  at  least,  the  most  intelligent  of 
conquering  powers  in  its  care  to  preserve  the  conquered 
peoples.  It  would  oppress  them,  it  would  rob  them,  but 
it  would  not  destroy  them.  It  kept  up  the  productive 
power  of  the  provinces  as  a  means  of  maintaining  the 
wealth,  power,  and  glory  of  Rome.  Its  avowed  aim  was 
to  awaken  among  the  conquered  the  tastes  and  wants  of 
civilization  as  a  means  of  keeping  them  in  peaceable  and 
willing  subjection.  Rome  would  have  looked  with  in- 
dignation and  horror  upon  a  proposition  to  introduce 
among  her  provinces  a  traffic  which  should  depress  the 
energies  of  the  conquered  people,  destroy  their  hope  and 
ambition,  and  take  away  the  last  desire  for  any  of  the 
advantages  of  civilization,  and  at  length  sweep  races  and 
nations  out  of  existence.  This  all  the  tyranny  of  Nero, 
Caligula,  and  Domitian,  and  all  the  weak  misgovernment 
of  the  last  degenerate  Caesars,  never  did.  In  comparisoa 
with  this  the  slaughter  of  a  few  thousands  in  her  splen- 
did arenas  was  humane  and  enlightened.  Under  her 
iron  rule  Britons,  Gauls,  Spaniards,  Greeks,  Egyptians, 
and  all  the  Asiatics  were  left  with  national  boundaries, 
languages,  and  civilizations,  with  splendid  cities,  schools 
of  philosoph}',  eloquence  and  art,  with  extensive  manu- 
factures, and  the  great  wise  system  of  Roman  roads  open- 
ing profitable  avenues  of  trade  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
while  her  strong  government  made  the  transfer  safe 
wherever  her  eagles  went.  Pagan,  profligate,  heartless, 
the  empire  was  yet  too  wise  to  destroy  its  producers. 

The  Saracens,  with  the  sword  in  one  hand  and  the 


448  FX'ONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIONS 

Koran  in  the  other,  never  waged  such  exterminating  war 
as  the  Anglo-Saxon,  with  a  shipload  of  rum  in  the  hold 
and  a  missionary  on  the  deck.  The  superintendent  of 
Lutheran  missions  in  West  Africa,  writes  : 

"On  one  small  vessel  on  which  myself  and  wife  were  the  only  pas. 
senders,  there  were  in  the  hold  over  one  hundred  thousand  gallons  of 
New  England  rum." 

What  we  have  said  of  cotton  goods  applies  to  every 
product  of  civilization  up  to  books  and  stationery.  Let 
the  missionaries  try  to  educate,  and  what  chance  have 
they  ?     Rev.  Dr.  Sims,  of  the  Baptist  mission,  says  : 

"When  I  was  assisting  to  conduct  a  mission  at  Bamana,  the  port 
of  the  Congo,  it  was  diflScult  to  get  the  natives  to  assemble  in  a  sober 
state  on  Sabbath  morning." 

What  could  a  minister  do  for  such  a  congregation  even 
in  America,  with  no  inherited  heathenism  behind  them  ? 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  gin  bottle  will 
travel  unaided,  like  the  cholera.  It  will  go — it  does  go 
— from  hand  to  hand  among  the  natives  hundreds  of 
miles  into  the  interior,  where  no  foot  of  white  man  has 
ever  trod  ;  and  the  most  enterprising  missionary  will  find 
the  bodies  and  souls  of  the  natives  pre-empted  before 
his  coming  by  the  demon  of  intoxication.    Says  Dr.  Sims  : 

"Bum  is  now  carried  into  the  far  interior  by  natives  and  retailed 
at  a  profit.  At  my  house,  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  in 
the  interior,  a  bottle  of  Itotterdam  gin  has  been  offered  to  me  at  six- 
teen cents  (eight  brass  rods),  and  a  demijohn  at  $3.  At  that  place 
caravans  of  Bateke  and  Bakongo  continually  passed,  of  which  twenty- 
five  men  out  of  every  hundred  would  be  loaded  with  intoxicating 
drinks.  From  such  sources  of  supply  I  have  seen  many  natives  and 
Boldiers  of  the  State  become  drunk  immediately  upon  the  arrival  of  a 
caravan.  It  is  pretty  certain  that  50  per  cent,  of  the  returned  com- 
merce account  of  the  natives  who  live  near  the  trading  houses  is 
given  to  them  in  liquor.     At  Stanley  Pool  not  more  than  25  per  cent. 


THE    devil's    foreign    MISSION.  449 

of  the  value  of  their  goods  goes  back  to  them  in  liquor,  but  that  is 
because  of  the  distuuee.  Were  they  living  near  u  trader  they  would 
be  hopelessly  drunken.  It  is  a  sad  thought  that  where  live  years  ago 
liquor  was  unknown  and  never  asked  for,  the  natives  now  beg  for  it, 
and  nothing  else  can  better  ingratiate  one  into  their  favor.  As  for 
the  kings  near  the  seaside  trading  houses,  intoxication  is  about  their 
normal  condition."* 

Not  only  does  the  traffic  destroy  the  market  for  all  the  t/ 
products  of  civilization,  but  it  stops  native  production. 
We  know  how  it  hinders  productive  work  in  civilized 
lands.     Among  the  Africans,  little  used  at  best  to  con- 
tinuous labor,  it  destroys  all  capacity  and  purpose  for  it. 

Says  Mr.  Stanley  if 

*' Gin  is  used  as  currency.  .  .  .  Gin  and  rum  are  also  largely 
consumed  as  grog  by  our  native  workmen.  We  dilute  both  largely, 
but  we  are  compelled  to  serve  it  out  both  morning  and  evening.  A 
stoppage  of  this  would  be  followed  by  a  cessation  of  work.  It  is 
•custom  ;'  custom  is  despotic,  and  we  are  too  weak  and  too  new  in 
the  country  to  rebel  against  custom.  If  we  resist^  custom  we  shall  be 
abandoned.  Every  visitor  to  our  camp  on  this  part  of  the  Congo 
[the  Lower],  if  he  has  a  palaver  with  us,  must  first  receive  a  small 
glass  of  rum  or  gin.  A  chief  receives  a  bottlefal,  which  he  dis- 
tributes teaspoonf nl  by  teaspoonful  among  his  followers.  This  is  the 
Lower  Congo  idea  of  'an  all-around  drink.'  I  see  by  the  returns  of 
the  station  chief  that  we  consume  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
gallons  of  rum  monthly,  by  distributing  grog  rations  and  native  de- 
mands for  it  in  lieu  of  a  portion  of  their  wages." 

Yet  in  the  interior,  where  Stanley  had  the  African  to 
himself,  no  leader  ever  got  from  any  set  of  men  more 
magnificent  and  continuous  work,  and  that  without  the 
liquor.  How  they  built  and  fortified  their  forest  camps  ! 
How  they  cut  roads  and  dragged  the  boats  aroi^d  the 
endless  cataracts  !     How  they  marched,  almost  starving, 


'  Free  Ram  on  the  Congo,' '  p.  76. 
The  Congo,"  vol.  i.,  p.  193. 


450  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

faitliful  unto  death  !  Yet  they  were  almost  a  pirate  crew 
when  they  set  out  from  Zanzibar,  embroiling  the  expedi- 
tion by  drunken  rows  in  the  villages  in  their  first  day's 
march.  When  he  got  them  into  the  interior,  where 
there  was  no  liquor,  other  motives  could  move  them 
better — as  they  can  all  humanity.  It  is  the  old  familiar 
story,  the  same  on  every  shore  ;  the  man  who  drinks 
must  have  it  ;  the  man  who  does  not  is  more  capable  of 
every  good  without  it.  Commerce  has  its  choice.  On 
one  side  is  a  race  of  lazy,  drunken  savages,  who  will  work 
just  long  enough  to  get  a  bottle  of  gin  and  "  enjoy  a 
fiendish  holiday,"  and  who  want  no  other  thing  that 
civilized  man  produces,  and  have  no  means  to  pay  for  it 
if  they  did. 

As  to  the  other  side,  we  are  told  that  they  are  dirty, 
immoral,  etc.,  which  is  only  to  say  that  they  are  savages. 
We  are  told  that  they  are  lazy — a  trait  which  may  be 
observed  elsewhere.  Stanley  did  not  find  much  indica- 
tion of  it  when  they  were  after  him  !  It  took  all  his 
energy,  enterprise,  and  indefatigable  endurance  to  get 
ahead  of  them.  People  who  can  build  war  canoes  sev- 
enty and  eighty  feet  long,  man  them  with  double  ranks 
of  oarsmen  and  warriors,  manoeuvre  them  in  fleets, 
charging  and  retreating  in  perfect  order  and  steadiness  ; 
who  can  build  villages  miles  in  length,  with  shady  verandas 
and  partitioned  rooms ;  who  can  keep  great  cleared 
spaces  in  their  forests  for  market-places,  which  are  held 
as  neutral  ground,  and  where  tribes  from  every  side  as- 
sembly to  trade  on  certain  specified  days  ;  who  can  take 
raw  iron  ore  and  work  it  into  tools,  with  nothing  better 
than  a  clay  furnace  of  their  own  invention  to  smelt  it  in, 
are  capable  of  civilization.  If  you  doubt  it,  get  down 
yonr  CflBsar  and  read  what  the  accomplished  and  victori- 


THE   devil's   foreign   MISSION.  451 

0U8  Roman  has  to  say  about  your  own  British  and  Celtic 
and  German  ancestors,  with  their  wicker  huts  and  their 
unclad,  tattooed  bodies,  their  aversion  to  all  industries 
except  war,  their  endless  tribal  feuds  and  their  human 
sacrifices,  and  then  consider  what  very  nice  people  we 
have  come  to  be,  and  you  will  admit  that  there  is  a 
chance  even  for  the  African.  Keep  awuy  the  liquor  of 
which  he  has  no  knowledge  and  feels  no  need  till  wo 
bring  it  to  him.  Offer  him  the  bright  garments,  the 
sharp,  effective  tools  ;  build  some  good  houses  there  ;  give 
missionaries  a  chance  to  teach  a  sober  people  the  prin- 
ciples of  morality  and  the  elements  of  knowledge  ;  and 
you  will  have  a  people  rising  in  the  scale  of  civilization, 
and  a  field  for  a  varied,  profitable,  and  enduring  com- 
merce, with  that  steady,  healthy  increase  which  is  the  life 
of  trade. 

Mr.  Hornaday  remarks  :* 

••  Naturally,  the  Upper  Congo  country  is  the  garden  spot  of  Africa, 
and  in  spite  of  the  present  hostility  of  some  of  the  natives  at  a  few 
points,  the  chances  are  that,  if  judiciously  'developed,'  it  will  event- 
ually produce  the  finest  types  of  the  African  race,  as  well  as  the 
greatest  commercial  riches.  If  rum  can  be  kept  from  these  people, 
and  white  thieves,  liars,  and  libertines  excluded  also  ;  if  they  can  be 
shown  what  a  multitude  of  blessings  flow  from  peace,  sobriety,  hon- 
esty, and  industry,  their  future  progress  upward  is  assured. 

*•  Prodaclions. — The  commercial  products  of  the  Congo  basin  are 
india-rubber,  palm-oil,  palm  nuts,  ground  nuts,  gum  copal,  camwood, 
wax,  ivory,  oichilla  weed,  cola  nuts,  baobab  fibre,  gum  tragacauth, 
myrrh,  nutmeg,  ginger,  frankincense,  coffee,  castor-seed,  rattan 
canes,  bark  cloth,  castor-oil  nuts,  copper,  feathers,  skins  and  hides, 

••The  native  food  products  of  the  country  (the  great  majority  of 
which  must  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  Upper  Congo)  are  . 
ground  nuts,  bananas,  plantains,  manioc  or  cassava,  maize,  sugar- 
cane,  millet,    yams,    sweet  potatoes,   beans,    brinjalls,    cucumbers, 


*  "Free  Eum  on  th«  Congo,"  pp.  129,  130. 


452  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

melons,  pumpkins,  tomatoes,  etc.  From  Stanley  Pool  eastward,  the 
officers  of  the  International  Association  have  introduced  mangoes, 
papaws,  orttnges,  limes,  coffee,  pineapples,  guavas,  cabbages,  Irish 
potatoes,  and  onions,  all  of  which  appear  to  thrive." 

Ill  view  of  the  threatened  destruction  of  all  this  trade, 
well  might  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  proclaim  in 
Westminster  Abbey  of  the  African  liquor  traffic  : 

"  It  is  a  dread  commerce.  But  it  is  rather  an  anti-commerce.  Tlie 
fear  of  il  and  the  dread  of  it  will  soon  he  upon  commerce  itself.  If  we 
have  long  seen  monopolies  to  be  a  bar  and  obstruction  to  trade— if 
we  have  found  that  to  put  a  whole  trade  into  the  hands  of  one  man 
is  to  kill  trade— what  shall  we  say  of  a  system  which,  in  the  name  of 
freedom,  threatens  with  extinction  all  trades  hut  one  ?  What  of  hales  of 
goods  reshipped  hecause,  in  the  drunken  population,  there  was  no  de- 
mand hut  for  drink— hecause  they  would  receive  nothing  else  in  barter 
— would  take  no  other  wages  for  the  early  morning's  work,  and  were 
incapable  when  the  early  morning  was  past?  These,  and  darker 
tales  than  these,  are  the  depositions  of  eye-witnesses,  whom  we  have 
no  ground  to  mistrust  or  even  suspect  of  exaggeration.  But  these 
surely  must  be  unexpected  results  of  the  foreign  diplomacy  which 
insisted,  without  qualification,  on  •  the  interests  of  trade  '  and  '  com- 
mercial liberty.'  It  would  be  treason  to  our  neighbors  to  suppose 
that  such  results  were  foreseen— such  crippling  of  commerce,  such 
disabling  of  industrial  energies  as  must  supervene.  * ' 

Let  us  cease  boasting  of  emancipation  for  awhile  till 
we  shall  have  proved  by  our  deeds  that  we  are  of  the 
same  race  with  the  men  who,  against  vested  interests, 
against  immemorial  custom,  against  the  supposed  inter- 
ests of  trade,  declared  the  slave  should  go  free.  The 
emancipation  of  Africa  and  the  isles  of  the  sea  from  in- 
toxicants is  a  greater  and  more  needed  work.  Said  Sir 
Richard  Burton  :  **  It  is  my  sincere  belief  that  if  the 
slave  trade  were  revived  with  all  its  horrors,  and  Africa 
could  get  rid  of  the  white  man,  with  the  gunpowder  and 
rum  which  lie  has  introduced,  Africa  would  be  the  gainer 
by  the  exchange/' 


THE   devil's   foreign   MISSION.  453 

And  Rev.  James  Johnson,  the  native  pastor  of  the 
island  of  Logos,  l)efore  referred  to,  before  a  meeting  of 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  committee- 
room  on  April  1st,  1887,  ended  his  speech  by  saying  : 

*'  The  shive  trade  had  been  to  Africa  a  great  evil,  but 
the  evils  of  the  rum  trade  were  far  worse.  Tie  would 
rather  his  countrymen  were  in  fdavery  and  being  worked 
hard^  and  kept  away  from  the  drink,  than  that  the  drink 
should  be  let  loose  upon  them." 

TVe  would  second  Mr.  Hornaday's  noble  proposition 
that  the  United  States  call  a  new  conference  of  the 
Powers,  and  give  all  its  influence  for  an  agreement  to 
absolutely  shut  out  intoxicants  from  the  Congo  Free 
State.  Let  all  the  productive  industries,  all  the  true  arts 
of  peace  unite  to  say  to  the  one  destroying  trade  of  ruin 
and  death  :  '*  Hands  off  from  the  new  markets  of  the 
world  !''  Humanity  and  religion  will  not  plead  in  vain 
when  commerce  shall  give  its  irresistible  support  to  their 
plea. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  when  all  the  great 
Powers  of  Europe  proposed  to  shut  out  gunpowder  and 
liquor  from  the  Pacitic  Islands  because  .of  the  terrible 
destruction  they  were  working,  and  invited  the  United 
States  to  join  them,  our  Government  blocked  the  plan 
by  its  single  veto.  Let  us  hasten  to  cancel  that  dark 
blot  by  doing,  far  as  the  sweep  of  our  commerce  and  the 
increasing  weight  of  our  national  influence  can  reach, 
something  worthy  of  the  Great  Republic. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


THE    GATES  OF    PARADISE. 

**  No  -way  so  rapid  to  increase  the  wealth  of  nations,  and  the  mo- 
rality of  society,  as  the  utter  annihilation  of  the  manufacture  of  ar- 
dent spirits,  constituting  as  they  do  an  infinite  waste  and  an  unmixed 
evil."  —London  Times. 

"The  evidence  is  perfectly  incontrovertible  that  the  good  order, 
the  physical  and  moral  welfare  of  the  community  has  been  promoted 
by  refusing  to  license  the  sale  of  ardent  spirits,  and  that  the  con- 
sumption of  spirits  has  been  very  greatly  diminished  in  all  instances, 
by  refusing  to  grant  licenses  ;  and  that,  although  the  laws  have  been 
and  are  violated  to  some  extent  in  different  places,  the  practice  soon 
becomes  disreputable,  and  hides  itself  from  the  public  eye  by  shrink-' 
ing  away  into  obscure  and  dark  places  ;  that  noisy  and  tumultuous 
assemblies  in  the  street,  and  public  quarrels  cease  when  licenses  are 
refused  ;  and  that  pauperism  has  very  rapidly  diminished  from  the 
same  cause." — Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature, 
1837. 

"  Though  we  have  a  population  of  ten  thousand  people,  for  the 
period  of  six  months  no  settler  or  citizen  of  Vineland  has  received  re- 
lief at  my  hands  as  overseer  of  the  poor.  Within  seventy  days  there 
has  been  only  one  case  among  what  we  call  our  floating  population 
at  the  expense  of  $4.00,  Daring  the  entire  year  there  has  only  been 
one  indictment,  and  that  a  trifling  case  of  batter}'  among  our  colored 
population.  .  .  .  The  police  expenses  of  Vineland  amount  to  $75  00 
a  year,  the  sum  paid  to  me,  and  our  poor  expenses  a  mere  trifle.  I 
OHcribe  this  remarkable  state  of  things  to  the  industry  of  our  people, 
and  the  absence  of  King  Wcohol."  —Report  of  Mr.  Curtis,  Oversetr  of 
the  Poor,  and  Constable  of  Vineland,  N.  J.,  1883. 

Six  million  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  open 
to  settlement  in  Oklahoma,  and  one  hundred   thousand 


THE    GATES    OF    PARADISE.  466 

men  surging  like  a  tide  on  the  borders,  only  kept  back 
by  the  military  arm  !  AYliy  ?  Those  six  million  acres 
meant  new  opportunities  for  industry,  new  openings  for 
labor.  It  was  not  as  the  early  Spaniards  went  to  Mexico 
and  Peru,  or  the  men  of  '49  to  California,  to  find  gold 
and  silver.  The  men  of  '89  crowded  to  Oklahoma  sim- 
pl}^  for  a  chance  to  dig  and  trade.  In  the  common 
march  of  life  these  are  the  best  chances  the  world  has  to 
offer — the  chance  to  do  some  work  the  world  wants  done 
and  to  get  paid  for  it.  But  there  is  before  the  Ameri- 
cans of  to-day  an  unoccupied  territory  compared  to  which 
all  the  acres  of  Oklahoma  and  all  the  square  miles  the 
Indians  yet  hold  are  insignificant. 

All  the  masters  of  political  economy  are  saying,  as 
with  one  voice,  that  it  is  not  what  a  man  earns^  but  what 
he  spends,  that  determines  riches  or  poverty,  indepen- 
dence or  pauperism.  It  is  an  old,  trite  truth,  but  as 
rich  as  the  aluminium  whose  strong,  bright  bars  are  ex- 
pected yet  to  take  the  place  of  our  clumsy  and  rugged 
iron,  and  which  lies  all  about  us  in  our  common  clay. 

A  while  ago  a  daily  paper  came  out  with  exultant 
headlines, 

SPLENDID   SHOWING. 

The  excess  of  exports  over  imports  for  the  year  amonnts  to  $165,- 
000,000. 

"What  did  that  mean  ?  One  hundred  and  sixty-five 
million  dollars  more  to  spend  among  our  own  people  and 
pay  our  own  workers,  to  buy  everything  our  people  want 
to  buy,  and  to  pay  everybody  who  has  anything  to  sell. 
But  we  are  ready  to  put  into  the  American  market 
$1,000,000,000  to  spend' among  our  own  people  and  pay 
our  own  laborers,  to  buy  everything  our  people  want  to 


456  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

bujj   and  to  pay  everybody  who  lias  anything  to  sell. 

Will  not  that  be  something  to  rejoice  over  ? 

Dr.  Hargreaves*  suggests  the  following  division  among 

other  industries  of  $800,000,000  expenditure  for  liquors 

on  the  basis  of  the  Census  of  1880  :f 

Food  and  food  preparations $471,666,012 

Boots  and  shoes 84,025,177 

Carpets 15.896.401 

Cotton  goods 96,045,055 

Mixed  textiles 33.110,851 

Woollen  goods 80  303,360 

Worsted  goods 16.774,971 

Total .$797,822,427 

But  our  liquor  bill  has  already  run  $200,000,000  beyond 

that  amount.  So  to  Dr.  Hargreaves's  estimates  we  will  add  : 

Furniture $45,000,000 

Anthracite  coal 25,000,000 

Bituminous  coal 30,000,000 

And  still  we  have  left  $100,000,000  for  margin,  of 
which  we  will  treat  by  and  by.  But  now  let  us  see  wha*- 
the  amount  already  provided  for  will  do.  Take  the 
$471,000,000  for  food  and  food  preparations. 

Dr.  Hargreaves  divides  this  amount  as  follows  (*'  Worse 
than  Wasted,"  page  69) : 

Value  of  Products  at  Factory 
Kind  of  Products.  or  Wholcs.-ile  I'nce. 

Flour  and  grist  mills $252,592,856 

Bread  and  bakery 32,912,448 

Slaughtering  and  meat  packing 151,781.206 

Cheese  and  butter  (factory) 12.871,255 

CoflFee  and  spices 11,462.447 

Food  preparations,  so  called.... 1,246,612 

Fruits  and  vegetables,  canned,  etc 8,799,788 

Total $471,666,612f 

Think  of  all  the  women  and  children  made  hungry  by 
the  intemperance  of  husbands  and  fathers.  Then  think  of 
setting  before  them  10,000,000  barrels  of  wheat  flour, 

♦  '*  Worse  than  Wasted,"  p.  66.     Of.  Ibid  ,  p.  61.    - 
f  See  "Compendium  Census  Report,    1880,"   pp.   1,130,    1,104, 
1,108-9,  1,127,  1,190,  112,  201-4. 


THE   GATES   OF    PARADISE.  457 

200,000  bushels  of  rye  flour,  15,000,000  bushels  of  corn 
meal,  20,0^0,000  pounds  of  buckwlieat  flour,  280,000 
bushels  of  hominy  !  All  this  to  be  bought  for  a  small  part 
of  the  money  now  spent  for  liquor— only  $250,000,000. 
Then  $150,000,000  of  beef,  pork,  mutton,  and  veal.  No 
more  sroinor  without  meat  in  our  bitter  winters  I  Then  we 
will  allow  $42,000,000  for  sugar,  syrup,  and  molasses  to 
eat  on  those  20,000,000  pounds  of  buckwheat  cakes,  and 
we  will  throw  in  $11,000,000  worth  of  tea,  coffee,  and 
spices,  and  $13,000,000  for  milk,  butter,  and  cheese,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Ilargrcaves's  estimates.  He  adds  still  $33,- 
000,000  for  bread  actually  baked,  and  other  bakery  products. 
We  have  come  upon  another  table,  somtjwhat  differing 
from  the  above,  which  is  so  refreshing  that  we  must  give 
it  for  comparison.* 

"It  is  estimated  that  three  millions  of  homes  are  affected  by  the 
drink  curse,  and  that  each  home  will  average  four  persons.  We  will 
now  distribute  the  $900,000,000  among  these  twelve  million  persons  : 

9,000,000  tons  coal,  $6  a  ton  ." $54,000,000 

3,000,000  cook  stoves,  $15 45,000,000 

Total $99,000,000 

NOW    BUY    FKOM    THE    FAEMEKS  : 

3,000,000  cords  wood,  $4 $12,000,000 

6,000,000  bbls.  flour.  $7 42,000,000 

9,000,000     "      potatoes,  S2 18,000,000 

300,000,000  lbs.  pork,  $15 45,000,000 

150,000,000  doz.  eggs,  18c 27,000.000 

150.000.000  lbs.  butter,  20c 30.000,000 

75,000,000      "    cheese,  lOo 7,500,000 

6,000.000  bbls.  apples,  $3 18,000,000 

.Other  fruit,  grapes,  plums,  currants,  etc..  9,000,000 

Milk 30.000,000 

300,000,000  lbs.  buckwheat  flour,  3c 9.000,000 

Beef,  valued  at 45,000,000 

Chickens 18.000,000 

Turkeys 18.000.000 

Vegetables 9,000,000 

Lard 7.500,000 

Total  to  farmers $345,000,000 

*By  Mr.  Calvin  E.  Kcach  in  The  Voiix  of  May  16th,  1880. 


458  ECCmOMICS   OF    PROHIBITIOX. 


THEN  BUY  FROM  THE  SHOE  TEADE  : 

Men's  boots,  6,000,000  pairs,  at  $1.50 $9,000,000  ' 

Children's  shoes,  24,000,000  pairs,  at  $1 24,000,000 

Women's  shoes,  6,000,000  pairs,  at  $2 12.000,000 

Total  to  the  shoe  trade $45,000,000 

BUY  FBOM  THE  WOOLLEN  MANUTACTUBEBS  : 

3.000,000  suits  clothes,  men,  $10  $30,000,000 

3,000.000  \voollen  dresses,  $4 12,000  000 

6,000.000  children's  dresses.  $2 12,000.000 

6,000.000  pairs  woollen  blankets,  $2 12,000,000 

6,000,000  suits  underwear,  men's,  $2 12,000,000 

6,000.000  suits  underwear,  women's,  $2 12,000,000 

12,000,000  suits  underwear,  children's,  $1..  12.000,000 

16.000,000  pairs  woollen  hose,  15c 2,400,000 

Total  to  woollen  manufacturers $10*4,400,000 

BUY   FBOM   MISCELLANEOUS   TRADES  : 

For  each  of  3,000,000  families. 

Tinware,  $3 $9,000,000 

1  new  table,  $5 15,000,000 

1  set  dishes,  $4 12,000.000 

2  table-cloths.  $4 12.000,000 

6  common  chairs,  $3 9,000,000 

1  clock,  $2 ■ 6.000,000 

50  yards  cotton  cloth,  $5 15,000,000 

Bent  3,000,000  houses  at  $76.20 228,600,000 

Grand  total $900,000,000 

*'  Here  we  sec  that  the  poor  coal-miners  of  Pennsylvania  will  have 
to  dig  out  $54,000,000  worth  of  extra  coal.  The  iron  moulders  will 
have  to  make  three  million  more  stoves,  valued  at  $45,000,000  more. 
The  farmers  can  dispose  of  an  extra  product  amounting  to  $345,- 
000,000  more.  And  the  woollen  goods  manufacturers  will  have  to 
supply  to  a  new  demand  in  market  extra  goods  of  the  value  of  $104,- 
400,000,  and  the  owners  of  tenement-houses  will  receive  in  rents  over 
$228,000,000." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Mr.  Reach  allows  more  for 
hutter,  cheese,  and  milk  than  Dr.  Hargreaves,  and  less 
for  flour,  probably  coimting  at  something  the  flour  they 
must  have  already.  Ho  allows  $9,000,000  for  fresh 
vegetables,  which  Dr.  Hargreaves  has  not  provided  for. 


THE    GATES   OF    PARADISE.  "459 

His  **  Other  fruit,  grapes,  plums,  etc.,"  will  just  about 
balance  Dr.  Ilargreaves'a  "  fruits  and  vegetables  canned." 
The  choice  would  bo  matter  of  taste  or  convenience.  It 
is  very  good  to  think  of  those  now  poor  mothers  becom- 
ing able  to  slip  a  nice  rcd-cheekcd  apple  into  the  father's 
lunch-pail  and  the  school-boy's  pocket  out  of  two  barrels 
in  the  cellar.  The  man  will  soon  find  his  apple  worth 
more  than  his  glass  of  beer.  There  will  be  more 
strength,  more  work,  more  *' staying  power"  in  it.  It 
is  very  delightful  to  find  ^*  turkeys"  among  the  supplies 
of  these  once  poor  families,  and  '^  chickens,"  too.  They 
can  have  a  nice  Thanksgiving  and  Christmas  dinner 
now,  with  an  occasional  treat  for  a  birthday.  But  isn't 
$36,000,000  rather  a  large  allowance  for  something  that 
is  rather  in  the  nature  of  a  luxury  ?  We  would  cut  that 
down  considerably.  Mr.  Reach's  allowance  for  milk, 
$30,000,000— $10  a  year  for  each  family— is  an  improve- 
ment on  Dr.  Ilargreavcs's  decidedly.  "We  would  still  in- 
crease the  amount.  It  would  soon  come  to  pass  that  the 
poor  would  learn  the  great  value  of  milk  for  food,  espe- 
cially for  children,  and,  with  the  $1,000,000,000  of  drink 
money  in  their  pockets,  they  would  have  something  to 
pay  the  milkman  with.  Many  a  poor  little  wan  baby, 
for  whom  the  family  '*  can't  afford  "  to  take  milk  now, 
will  revive  and  brighten  as  the  mother  holds  to  its  lips 
the  brimming,  creamy  cup.  If  we  could  only  do  it  soon 
enough,  before  the  baby  dies  !  Why,  sir,  a  quart  of 
milk  a  day  for  your  baby  at  home  is  only  the  price  of 
one  glass  of  beer  in  tho  saloon.  And  the  little  one  can't 
have  it  I  Let's  shut  up  the  places  that  create  such  in- 
humanity as  that  ! 

But  ''man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone."     On  the 
basis  of  Dr.  Hargreaves's  estimates  we  have  provided 


460  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITIOX. 

$471,000,000  for  food.  We  add  $42,000,000  for  sugar  and 
$30,000,000  for  railk,  making  $543,000,000  for  all  kinds 
of  food.  Returning  to  his  table,  we  will  invest  $84,000,- 
000  in  boots  and  shoes.  For  this  he  reckons,  according 
to  the  census  reports,  15,000,000  pairs  of  boots  and 
47,000,000  pairs  of  shoes  ;  but  this  is  at  wholesale  prices, 
about  $1.75  a  pair  for  boots  and  $1.25  a  pair  for  shoes. 
We  cannot  buy  at  those  figures,  much  as  we  would  like 
to.  We  must  double  them.  But  one-half  the  number 
of  pairs — 7,500,000  pairs  of  boots — will  furnish  our 
3,000,000  drinking  men  with  two  pairs  each  on  an  aver- 
age, and  some  extra  for  those  whose  occupations  wear 
them  out  faster  than  others.  Twenty-seven  million  pairs 
of  shoes  will  give  nine  pairs  for  each  of  these  3,000,000 
families,  estimated  at  three  members  besides  the  man, 
whose  boots  are  already  provided  for.  That  will  be 
three  pairs  a  year  for  each  woman  and  child.  No  more 
bare  feet  on  the  icy  sidewalk  I 

For  wet  weather  they  ought  to  have  rubbers.  If  we 
allow  one  pair  each  for  father  and  mother,  at  seventy- 
five  cents,  and  one  pair  each  to  the  children,  at  fifty 
cents,  that  will  be  $2.50  for  each  family,  or  $7,500,000 
in  all.  Prohibition  will  be  worth  something  to  the 
rubber  trade. 

For  woollen  goods  our  $80,000,000  will  give  us 
1,000,000  pairs  of  blankets,  600,000  woollen  coverlets, 
36,000,000  yards  of  ^'  cloths,  cassimeres,  doeskins,  diag- 
onals, and  suitings  ;"  also  3,000,000  yards  of  beavers  and 
overcoatings,  besides  9,000,000.  yards  of  satinettes, 
tweeds,  overcoatings,  and  other  goods.  Then  there 
would  be  about  12,000,000  yards  of  various  dress  goods, 
and  about  700,000  r^hawlH.  Next,  the  worsted  goods  at 
$16,000,000  will   pour   in   their  n)ore  than   30,000,000 


THE    GATES    OF    PARADISE.  461 

yards  of  dress  goods,  1,500,000  yards  of  coatings,  lin- 
ings, triininings,  braids,  etc.,  and  about  300,000  worsted 
shawls.     Now  the  poor  can  go  to  church. 

The  $96,000,000  for  cotton  goods  will  provide  about 
1,000,000,000  yards,  or  300  yards  for  each  family  of  the 
3,000,000  drinkers.  When  we  consider  that  this  means 
table-cloths,  napkins,  towels,  sheets,  pillow-cases,  muslin 
curtains,  calico,  and  underwear,  and  that  for  many  fami- 
lies who  have  been  kept  very  short  of  all,  the  amount  is 
not  excessive. 

We  are  still  able  to  spend  about  $15,000,000  for  car- 
pets, even  including  2,000,000  of  Brussels,  4,000,000 
yards  of  tapestry,  and  about  12,000,000  yards  of  other 
varieties,  besides  24,000  rugs.  How  many  a  dreary 
room  will  now  be  made  bright  and  cheery  1 

Then  we  have  $45,000,000  worth  of  furniture,  includ- 
ing stoves,  to  put  into  all  these  homes— only  $15  into 
each  home,  but  enough  to  change  its  whole  aspect  as  the 
seasons  pass.  It  is  wear  without  replacement  which 
makes  the  unspeakable  desolation  of  the  drunkard's 
home.  We  are  going  to  have  articles  replaced  as  they 
wear  out,  and  new  ones  added  as  new  needs  arise.  Now 
a  table,  then  a  few  chairs,  a  bedstead,  a  set  of  springs  ; 
they  come  in  one  after  another,  and  home  grows  a  little 
more  comfortable  instead  of  more  dreary  all  the  time. 

We  will  have  §25,000,000  worth  of  anthracite  and 
$30,000,000  of  bituminous  coal,  and  we'll  stop  the  shiv- 
ering over  a  few  embers,  we'll  break  up  half  the  rheu- 
matisms, and  head  off  thousands  of  cases  of  consumption. 
We'll  MO  longer  have  the  woman  who  has  done  a  hard 
day's  washing  over  a  smouldering  fire,  going  out  at  four 
o'clock  the  next  morning  in  a  calico  dress,  with  a  little 
thin  shawl  and  leaky  shoes,  to  pick  up  enough  coal  along 


462  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

tlie  railroad  track  to  keep  the  child reu  from  freezing, 
aiid  call  that  '^  practical  temperance." 

And  still  we  have  a  good  part  of  our  hundred  million 
margin  to  know  what  to  do  with.  Let  us  see  how  much 
we  have  drawn  on  it.  Our  §42,000,000  of  sugar  came 
out  of  it;  also  §30,000,000  for  milk,  and  $7,500,000 
for  rubbers,  making  $79,500,000,  and  leaving  a  balance 
of  $20,500,000  still  to  spend. 

We  will  double  the  salaries  of  all  the  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  $12,000,000,  or — where  that  is  not  needed — 
build  or  improve  chapels.  We  will  nearly  double  the 
amount  contributed  for  missions,  adding  a  solid  $5,000.- 
000.  This  will  add  to  the  above  estimates  $17,000,000, 
making  $96,500,000  ;  and  as  Dr.  Hargreaves's  estimate 
was  a  little  more  than  $2,000,000  short  of  the  $800,000,- 
000,  we  have  in  all  $5,677,573  from  our  $1,000,000,000 
still  to  spare.     What  shall  we  do  with  this  ? 

Well,  something  must  be  allowed  for  education,  in- 
cluding school  and  other  books,  papers  and  periodicals, 
popular  lectures,  etc.  Every  family  where  there  are 
children  could  take  the  YoutWa  Cotnjpanion^  Saint 
Nicholas,  Wide  Awake,  the  Pansy,  or  Bahyland,  for 
instance.  That  would  give  the  children  something  to 
keep  them  ofiF  the  street,  to  talk  over  with  the  parents 
and  with  each  other,  and  to  fill  their  minds  with  useful 
instruction  and  pleasant  images.  Some  good  religious 
or  temperance  paper  should  come  in,  and  occasionally  a 
nice  book  on  a  Christmas  or  a  birthday.  Something 
must  be  allowed  for  sickness  and  accident,  though  both 
these  items  would  shrink  wonderfully  among  a  people 
with  no  diseases  of  intemperance,  no  drunken  harshness 
or  carelessness,  and  all  well  fed,  well  clothed,  with 
plenty  of  fuel  and  comfortable  liomes. 


THE   GATES   OF    PARADISE.  463 

But  there  is  one  difficulty  here.  If  we  are  going  into 
these  matters  of  education,  taste,  and  refinement,  that 
little  balance  of  $5,000,000  won't  begin  to  go  around. 
That  is  true.  But  no  one  need  be  worried  over  a  small 
matter  like  that.  We  have  $1,000,000,000  still  in  re- 
serve— the  indirect  expense  still  untouched.  Now  let 
humanity  draw  its  checks  for  all  that  makes  human  ex- 
istence happy,  beautiful,  and  hopeful,  and  outside  the 
Ihnits  of  wasteful  luxury  we  can  meet  them  all. 

There  will  be  many  differences,  according  to  indi- 
vidual choice.  Much  of  this  money  will  be  expended 
for  rents.  These  drinking  men  all  live  somewhere  now, 
but  how  many  of  them  in  wretched  habitations  !  One 
of  the  first  uses  of  their  saved  money  will  be  to  rent  a 
better  residence.  Instead  of  two  miserable  rooms,  a 
pretty  little  house  ;  instead  of  the  filthy  alley,  a  pleasant 
street  ;  instead  of  the  foul  gutter,  a  patch  of  grass. 
New  houses  will  be  built  by  the  streetful — new  suburbs 
spring  up  around  all  our  cities.  The  real  estate  business 
will  enter  on  a  new  era  of  prosperity.  As  the  fii*st  needs 
of  clothing,  furniture,  etc.,  are  supplied,  many  will  be- 
gin to  save  up  the  *^  drink  waste  "  and  pay  it  in  instal- 
ments on  the  purchase  of  a  home  which  shall  be  their 
own.  They  will  have  the  heart  to  improve  it,  to  set  out 
vines  and  flowers,  rose-bushes  and  trees,  knowing  that 
all  is  to  be  their  own  or  their  children's. 

What  a  difference  it  will  make  to  thousands  of  women 
who  have  now  only  the  wretched  rooms  with  bare  floor, 
whose  gaps  and  splinters  are  only  rendered  more  mani- 
fest by  sweeping  ;  mangled  furnitrre,  whose  dents  and 
scratches  are  only  more  hopelessly  revealed  by  dusting  ; 
the  dingy  window,  which  if  cleaned  only  shows  a  dingier 
alley  ;  the  faded  and  ragged  calico  dress  for  both  morn- 


464  ECONOMICS  or  prohibition. 

ing  and  evening  ;  little  food  to  cook  and  less  fire  to  cook 
it  with  ;  children  chiefly  thought  of  as  creatures  with 
appetites  that  cannot  be  satisfied  and  bodies  that  cannot 
be  clothed;  not  a  picture,  book,  or  paper  to  furnish  a 
story  to  read  them  or  a  fresh  thought  to  talk  over  with 
them  ;  the  husband  daily  growing  coarser,  duller,  and 
more  purposeless  ;  the  certainty  that  to-niorrow  shall 
be  as  this  day  and  much  more  disconsolate  ;  that  if  busi- 
ness improves  it  will  give  only  so  much  more  to  go  into 
the  maw  of  the  remorseless  saloon  ! 

Then  the  genial  minister  tells  the  poor  woman,  '^  So- 
ciety can  do  nothing  for  you.  You  cannot  make  men 
virtuous  by  law.  It  is  your  duty  to  keep  gentle  and 
patient  and  make  home  so  bright  that  your  husband  will 
want  to  stay  in  it.''  How?  God  only  knows.  And 
does  lie  know  except  by  changing  that  state  of  things^ 
and  giving  something  to  brighten  home  with  ?  ^'If  a 
brother  or  sister  be  naked  and  destitute  of  daily  food, 
and  one  of  you  say  unto  them.  Depart  in  peace,  be  ye 
warmed  and  filled,  notwithstanding  ye  give  them  not 
those  things  needful  for  the  body,  what  doth  it  profit  ? 
Even  so,  faith  without  works  is  dead,  being  alone." 

But  Prohibition  crystallizes  faith  into  "  the  things 
needful  for  the  bod3^''  It  puts  this  oppressed  woman 
into  a  comfortable  home.  It  puts  on  the  floor  a  bright 
carpet,  pretty  if  cheap,  curtains  at  the  windows,  simple 
furniture  that  is  neat,  trim,  and  strong,  and  some  of  the 
really  beautiful  pictures  that  modern  art  makes  so  cheap 
upon  tlio  walls.  Now  she  will  find  a  perfect  joy  in 
sweeping  the  last  speck  off  that  carpet,  dusting  the  fur- 
niture till  it  shines,  keeping  the  windows  clear  as  a 
mountain  stream.  When  she  wishes  to  get  dinner, 
there  is  a  stove  that  will  cook  and  fuel  to  put  in  it.     In 


THK    (JATKS    OF    PARADISE.  4C5 

the  pantrj  there  is  a  sack  of  flour  and  her  iittlc  jar  of 
sugar,  and  all  the  spices  and  sundries  that  a  good  house^ 
wife  needs.  In  her  puree  there's  the  money  to  mako 
the  market  stall  a  promise  and  not  a  despair.  How  she 
will  slave  at  that  cooking  because  *'  John  is  so  fond  of 
this,"  and  ''  those  will  taste  so  good  to  the  children  !" 
She  will  not  know  that  she  is  hot  or  tired.  When  she 
would  sit  down  to  her  sewmg,  she  can  change  the  neat 
working  dress  of  the  morning  for  a  pretty  home  dress 
for  afternoon.  She  will  take  some  pains  to  make  her- 
self a  fair  portion  of  the  pretty  home  scene.  When  she 
goes  to  work  on  the  children's  clothes,  there's  something. 
to  make  the  little  garments  out  of.  She  will  hear  songs 
of  hope  in  the  hum  of  her  sewing-machine,  and  there 
will  he  a  light  in  her  eyes  and  a  song  on  her  own  lips. 
Good  food  will  bring  back  the  color  to  her  wasted  cheek. 
The  children,  as  they  burst  in  from  school,  will  exclaim, 
'•  How  pretty  you  look,  mamma  !"  or,  if  they  don't 
say  it,  will  have  the  settled  conviction  that  she  is  the 
most  beautiful  woman  in  the  world  ;  and  the  husband 
will  find  the  charm  of  long  ago  drawing  him  to  her  side 
again,  now  the  saloon's  fell  enchantment  is  broken  for- 
ever. 

Now  there  is  some  use  in  talking  to  her  of  making 
home  bright  and  attractive,  and  being  gentle  and  patient 
amid  the  worries,  of  which  life  will  still  have  enough. 
How  those  parents  will  delight  in  talking  with  their  chil- 
dren about  their  school  lessons  and  plays,  and  in  reading 
with  them  the  books  and  papers,  with  their  mingled  in- 
terest and  instruction  for  old  and  young  !  The  evenings 
will  be  all  too  short,  and  the  man  will  wonder  that  ever 
he  cared  to  stay  in  a  foul  saloon  among  a  herd  of  rude 
men,  leaving  these,  his  own  dear  ones,  in  unpitied  mis- 


4(36  ECONOMICS    OF    PRUHIBITIOX. 

ery,  and  listening  to  things  he  would  not  have  them  hear 
for  all  this  world.  How  the  children's  eyes  will  brighten 
and  their  faces  shine  !  How  strong  they  will  be  for  play 
and  how  ambitious  for  study  !  How  dear  their  home 
will  be  to  them  !  How  the  light  of  love  and  peace  and 
joy  will  make  their  faces  beautiful  ! 

Then  all  around,  among  the  people  who  were  never 
intemperate,  the  wave  of  this  prosperity  will  sweep. 
The  stores  and  the  mills,  the  railroads  and  the  mines, 
the  ships  and  farms — all  who  produce  or  transport  or 
deal  in  the  goods  which  these  rescued  families  are  now 
able  to  buy— will  share  the  blessing.  The  country  will 
answer  back  the  city's  rejoicing.  "The  trees  will  clap 
their  hands  and  the  fields  be  joyful  together.'' 

But  this  is  sentiment.  So  hard  is  it  to  keep  strictly 
to  dry  economics  where  human  hearts  are  part  of  the 
problem.  Well,  then,  let  us  say  this  man  with  the 
happy  home  is  in  no  danger  of  becoming  a  pauper. 
The  chances  that  ever  he  will  be  a  criminal  are  faint  and 
rare.  You'll  not  need  any  liquor  fund  to  support  his 
wife  and  children  in  your  poorhouse,  thank  you.  He  is 
not  very  likely  to  go  to  the  insane  asylum,  nor  his  wife 
either.  Streets  of  such  homes  as  his  will  not  breed  a 
pestilence,  and  will  not  need  half  as  many  policemen  to 
patrol  them.  The  happiness  will  materialize  in  cash. 
With  a  city,  a  nation,  of  such  homes,  every  business 
will  boom,  all  our  nation  prospering  and  exulting  through 
the  two  thousand  million  revenue  of  righteousness  I 
Who  would  not  help  to  bring  the  happy,  glorious  day  ? 
What  true  heart  will  not  bid  us  God-speed  as  we  toil  to 
hasten  its  comiug  i 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

THE    "  ORIGINAL    PACKAGE 

"  I  HAVE  expressed  heretofore,  and  I  now  repeat,  my  opposition 
to  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  but  I  should  be  allowed  to  state  the  na- 
ture of  that  opposition,  and  I  ask  your  indulgence  while  I  do  so. 
What  id  fairly  implied  by  the  term  Judge  Douglas  has  used,  '  resist- 
ance to  the  decision  '  ?  I  do  not  resist  it.  If  I  wanted  to  take  Dred 
Scott  from  his  master,  I  would  bo  interfering  with  property,  and 
that  terrible  difficulty  that  Judge  Douglas  speaks  of,  of  intorferiug 
with  property,  would  arise.  But  I  am  doing  no  such  thing  as  that, 
but  all  that  I  am  doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  political  rule.  If  I 
were  in  Congress,  and  a  vote  should  come  up  on  a  question  whether 
slavery  should  be  prohibiled  in  a  new  Territory,  in  spite  of  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  I  would  vote  that  it  should. 

"  That  is  what  I  would  do.  Judge  Douglas  said  last  night  that 
before  the  decision  he  might  advance  his  opinion,  and  it  might  be 
contrary  to  the  decision  when  it  was  made  ;  but  after  it  was  made 
be  would  abide  by  it  lantil  it  was  reversed.  Just  so  !  We  let  this 
property  abide  by  the  decision,  hut  we  will  try  to  reverse  thai  decision. 
We  will  try  to  put  it  where  Judge  Douglas  would  not  object,  for  he 
says  he  will  obey  it  until  it  is  reversed.  Somebody  has  to  reverse  that 
decision,  since  it  is  made,  and  we  mean  to  reverse  it,  and  we  mean 
to  do  it  peaceably.'" — Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  speech  against  Douglas 
at  Chicago,  July  10th,  1858. 

A  Supreme  Court  decision  is  not  a  '*  thus  saith  tlio 
Lord."  It  is  not  a  finality.  It  is  not  above  criticism. 
It  is  not  beyond  reversal.  It  is  simply  a  declaration  of 
the  law  de  facto^  which  is  to  be  obeyed  by  the  citizen 
until  the  law  shall  be  changed  or  otherwise  interpreted 
by  competent  authority.  It  does  not  shut  off  discussion 
of  the   principles  of  law  and  of  right   involved.     The 


•iJ8  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITIO  N . 

people's  inalienable  right  to  consider  what  is  desirable  as 
law,  and  what  ought  to  be  law,  remains  unaffected  by 
any  decision  the  highest  court  in  the  land  may  utter.  In 
fa^t,  as  shown  by  the  memorable  speech  of  Abraiiam 
Lincoln,  it  is  competent  for  the  people  from  the  mo- 
ment a  decision  is  uttered  which  they  believe  contrary 
to  right  and  justice,  to  begin  to  agitate  for  a  reversal  of 
that  decision  by  the  court  that  uttered  it,  or  for  such 
Congressional  action  as  may  destroy  or  prevent  its  in- 
jurious effects. 

Such  agitation  was  begun  from  the  moment  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  was  pronounced,  by  some  of  the  noblest 
and  ablest  men  our  countr^^  has  ever  possessed,  with  the 
results  known  to  history.  Now  we  come  to  another  Su- 
preme Court  decision  whose  results  are  startlingly  bad. 
.  In  its  discussion  we  must  consider  the  principles  of  right 
involved.  Nothing  has  ever  stood  the  test  of  time  as  en- 
during law  which  was  contrary  to  the  essential  principles 
of  eternal  right. 

f  The  liquor  traffic  is  just  as  much  a  curse  as  it  was  be- 
fore  the  decision.  To  debauch  and  destroy  the  son  of  a 
loving  mother,  or  the  husband  and  father  of  a  happy 
family,  is  just  as  mercenary,  cruel  and  murderous,  and 
just  as  contrary  to  the  best  interests  of  the  Republic,  as  it 
was  before.  To  turn  those  who  might  be  good  and  in- 
dustrious citizens  into  sots,  paupers,  criminals,  maniacs, 
aud  incarnate  demons  is  contrary  to  all  the  principles  and 
interests  for  which  governments  are  instituted  among 
men,  and  menaces  the  very  existence  of  civilized  society. 

Now  to  say  that  a  State  which  has  determined  to  shut 
such  a  traffic  out  by  law  is  forbidden  by  its  allegiance 
to  the  general  government  to  exercise  its  own  police 
force  for  its  own  protection  against  an  evil  which  is  de- 


THE    "ORIGINAL   PACKAGE"   DECISION.  46d 

6tro)'ing  its  own  dearest  interests,  is  not  good  ethics, 
wliatever  it  may  be  in  the  technicalities  of  law.  It  is 
not  right.  If  there  is  a  man  in  mj  community  who,  if 
he  drinks  whiskey,  is  likely  at  any  time  to  burn  my 
house,  harm  my  children,  insult  my  wife  or  murder  mc, 
it  is  not  right  nor  justice  to  say  that  another  man  may 
sell  him  all  the  whiskey  he  chooses  to  sell,  because  the 
seller  ships  the  element  of  destruction  in  from  another 
State.  If  anything,  the  fact  that  he  is  a  non-resident  is 
so  much  the  mare  reason  why  he  should  not  he  allowed  to 
do  mischief  where  he  does  not  belong,  and  to  injure 
those  whom  he  does  not  help  to  protect,  and  whose  bur- 
dens he  does  not  help  to  bear. 

To  say  that  communities  which,  by  shutting  out  the 
traflBc  in  intoxicating  liquors,  are  enjoying  indescribable 
peace  and  happiness,  with  full  schoolhouses  and  empty 
jails,  with  workingmen  dwelling  in  homes  of  their  own 
and  laying  up  snug  little  sums  in  the  savings  banks,  with 
no  tramps,  no  starvation  and  no  wife  beating,  sliall  be  com- 
pelled by  the  fiat  of  the  nation  to  let  in  that  traffic  with  all 
these  evils  again,  merely  because  some  heartless  citizen  of 
another  State  is  ready  to  desolate  these  communities  for 
what  he  can  make  out  of  the  desolation,  is  something 
more  worthy  of  a  despotism  than  of  a  republic. 

If  all  America  were  under  Prohibition,  and  George 
Kennan  were  to  bring  us  such  a  statement  as  this,  **  In 
Russia  every  province  from  the  Bahic  to  the  PaciGc 
shore  and  from  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the  wall  of  China, 
and  every  city,  town,  and  village  in  all  that  vast  domain 
is  compelled  to  allow  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors, 
however  great  the  injury  it  may  do,  however  many  of 
the  people  are  opposed  to  it,  however  earnestly  they  may 
plead  and   pray  to  be  delivered  from  it.     It  is  forced 


470  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

upon  them  by  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  to  inter- 
fere with  it  would  be  a  crime,"  we  should  liold  this  to 
be  one  of  the  most  terrible  indictments  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Czar.  Kennan  tells  of  women  flogged  by 
brutal  officers,  and  it  makes  our  blood  tingle  across  the 
sea  ;  but  those  women  were  beaten  by  strangers  with  no 
ties  of  relationship,  no  vows  of  affection,  no  pledge  of 
protection.  In  America  it  is  done  every  day,  not  in  one 
case,  but  in  hundreds.  American  women,  whom  we  call 
free,  are  beaten,  bruised,  and  murdered  by  their  own  hus- 
bands in  their  own  homes.  We  read  of  it  in  every 
morning  paper,  and  our  law  says  this  shall  go  on  ;  that 
no  State,  no  county,  city  or  town,  no  village  or  hamlet 
shall  be  allowed  to  shut  out  the  one  deadly  cause  of  it 
all. 

When  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  pro- 
nounces such  a  decision  as  this,  all  our  American  man- 
hood, all  our  traditions  of  liberty,  all  our  sense  of  justice 
and  right  rise  in  vehement  and  determined  protest.  This 
can  never  be  enduring  law.  It  is  not  in  accord  with  the 
eternal  fitness  of  things  ;  it  does  not  establish  justice, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  nor  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty.     It  is  not  the  will  of  God. 

This  decision  reflects  the  increasing  dominance  of  the 
liquor  power  since  the  beginning  of  the  war  era.  When 
the  New  Hampshire  Decision  of  1847  was  rendered,  a 
great  tidal  wave  of  temperance  was  rolling  in.  Lyman 
Beecher's  thrilling  ^*  Six  Sermons  on  Intemperance'' 
had  been  scattered  through  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land.  The  Washingtonian  Movement  had  seen  its 
pledge  signed  by  600,000  men.  John  B.  Gough,  in  the 
bplcndor  of  his  early  prime,  was  moving  the  hearts  of 
thousands  by  his  fiery  eloquence.     Governors,  judges, 


THE    "ORIGINAL    PACKAGE ''    DECISION.  471 

eminent  lawyers,  and  leadinf^  divines  were  uniting  in  pro- 
test against  all  license  of  the  liquor  traffic  as  both  im- 
politic and  wrong.  Local  Option  had  become  the  law  of 
Massachusetts  and  other  important  States,  and  in  Maine 
that  sentiment  was  rapidly  forming  which  was  soon  to 
crystaUize  in  the  *'  Maine  Law."  Judges  are  men,  and 
all  the  opinions  rendered  on  that  occasion  show  that  they 
partook  of  this  strong  public  sentiment  for  temperance. 
This  is  well  exemplified  in  the  clear  and  forcible  words 
of  Justice  Grier  :* 

"  The  true  question  presented  by  these  cases,  and  one  -which  I  am 
not  disposed  to  evade,  is  ichether  the  States  have  a  right  to  proldhil  the 
sale  and  consumption  of  an  article  of  commerce  which  they  believe  to 
be  pernicious  in  its  effects,  and  the  cause  of  disease,  pauperism,  and 
crime.  I  do  not  consider  the  question  of  the  exclusiveness  of  the 
power  of  Congress  to  regulate  commerce  as  necessarily  connected  Mith 
the  decision  of  this  point. 

"It  has  been  frequently  decided  by  this  court  that  the  powers 
which  relate  to  merely  municipal  regulations,  or  which  may  more 
properly  be  called  internal  police,  are  not  surrendered  by  the  States, 
or  restrained  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that, 
consequently,  in  relation  to  these,  the  authority  of  a  State  is  com- 
plete, unqualified,  and  exclusive.  Without  attempting  to  define  what 
are  the  peculiar  subjects  or  limits  of  this  power,  it  may  safely  be 
affirmed  that  evtry  law  for  the  restraint  and  punishment  of  crime,  for 
ihe  preservation  of  the  public  peace,  health  and  morals,  must  come  within 
this  category. 

' '  As  SUBJECTS  OP  LEGISLATION,  THEY  ARE  FROM  THEIR  VERY  NATURB 
OF  PRIMARY  IMPORTANCE  ;  THEY  LIB  AT  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  SOCIAL  EX- 
ISTENCE ;  THEY  ARE  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF  LIFE  AND  LIBERTY,  AND 
NECESSARILY  COMPEL  ALL  LAWS  ON  SUBJECTS  OF  SECONDARY  IMPORTANCE, 
WHICH  RELATE  ONLY  TO  PROPERTY,  CONVENIENCE  OB  LUXURY,  TO  RECEDE, 
•WHEN  THEY  COMB  IN  CONFLICT  OB  COLLISION,    '  Sttlus  populi  SUprcmO  IcX. ' 

"  If  the  right  to  control  these  subjects  be  complete,  unqualified,  and 
exclusive,  in  the  State  legislatures,  no  regulations  of  secondary  impor- 
tance can  supersede  or  restrain  their  operations,  on  any  ground  of  prerog- 


Howard's  Reports.  Vol.  V.,  pp.  G31,  632. 


472  ■    ECONOMICS    OF   PROHIBITION. 

alive  or  sxipremacy.  The  exigencies  of  the  social  compact  require 
that  such  laws  be  executed  he/ore  and  above  all  others. 

"  It  is  not  necessary,  for  the  sake  of  justifying  the  State  legislation 
now  under  consideration,  to  array  the  appalling  statistics  of  misery, 
pauperism,  and  crime  which  have  their  origin  in  the  nse  or  abuse  of 
ardent  spirits.  The  police  power,  which  is  exclusively  in  the  States, 
is  alone  competent  to  the  correction  of  these  great  evils,  and  all 

MEASURES  OF  EESTBAIKT  OB   PROHIBITION  NECESSAET  TO   EFFECT  THE  PUK- 

POSE  ABE  WITHIN  THE  SCOPE  OF  THAT  AUTHOEiTT.  There  18  no  Conflict 
of  power,  or  of  legislation,  as  between  the  States  and  the  United 
States  ;  each  is  acting  within  its  sphere,  and  for  the  public  good  ; 
and  if  a  loss  of  revenue  should  accrue  to  the  United  States  from  a 
diminished  consumption  of  ardent  spirits,  she  will  be  the  gainer  a 
thousand  fold  in  the  health,  wealth,  and  happiness  of  the  people." 

So  when  there  was  a  question  between  State  and  Na- 
tional jurisdiction,  they  gave  to  Temperance  the  "benefit 
of  the  dovht. 

Chief  Justice  Taney  concluded  his  opinion  thus  :* 

"  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  the  law  of  New  Hampshire  is,  in  my 
judgment,  a  valid  one.  For  although  the  gin  sold  was  an  import 
from  another  State,  and  Congress  has  clearly  the  power  to  regulate 
such  importations  under  the  grant  of  power  to  regulate  commerce 
among  the  several  States,  yet,  as  Congress  has  made  no  regidaiion  on  the 
subject,  the  traffic  in  the  article  may  be  lawfully  regulated  by  the 
State  as  soon  as  it  is  landed  in  its  territory,  and  a  tax  imposed  upon 
it,  or  a  license  required,  or  the  sale  altogether  prohibited,  according  to 
the  policy  which  the  State  may  suppose  to  be  its  interest  or  duty  to 
pursue." 

This  the  present  Supremo  Court  lias  exactly  reversed. 
The  same  conflict  of  jurisdictions  exists,  and  the  same 
doubt.  Congress  has  not  passed  upon  the  matter  during 
these  forty  years.  But  within  that  time  a  vast  tide  of 
foreign  immigration  has  poured  in,  bringing  the  drink- 
ing usages  and  opinions  of  the  Old  World.  Within  that 
time,  too,  the  United  States  Government  has  become  the 


♦Howard's  Reports,   Vol.  V.,  p.  586. 


THE    *' ORIGINAL    PACKAGE"    DECISION.  473 

champion  liquor-dealer  of  the  world  ;  United  States 
Retristered  Distilleries  and  United  States  Bonded  Ware- 
houses  fill  the  country,  and  the  National  (xoverninent 
receives  close  upon  a  hundred  million  dollars  annually 
from  the  traffic  which  destroys  the  people.  Since  Presi- 
dent Hayes  went  out  of  office,  the  Presidential  mansion 
has  set  the  example  of  a  profuse  hospitality  of  liquor. 
The  National  Liqnor  Power  has  become  the  strongest  in- 
stitution in  the  United  States.  Still  our  Supreme  Judges 
are  men.  They  have  felt  the  effect  of  the  national  re- 
trogression. Finding  the  National  and  State  jurisdiction, 
still  in  doubt,  they  have  given  the  henefit  of  the  doubt  to 
the  liquor  traffic^  deciding  as  follows  : 

"  Whenever,  however,  a  particular  power  of  the  general  Govern- 
ment is  one  which  must  necessarily  be  exercised  by  it,  and  Congress 
remains  silent,  Ihis  is  not  only  not  a  concession  that  the  powers  restrved  by 
the  Slate  may  he  exerted  as  if  the  specific  power  had  not  been  elsewhere  re- 
posed, but,  on  the  contrary,  the  only  legitimate  conclusion  is  that  the  general 
Government  intended  that  power  should  not  be  affirmatively  fxfrcised,  and 
the  action  of  the  States  cannot  bepei-milted  to  effect  that  which  would  be  in- 
compatible with  such  intention.  Hence,  inasmuch  as  inter  State  com- 
merce, consisting  in  the  transportation,  purchase,  sale,  and  exchange 
of  commodities,  is  national  in  its  character,  and  must  be  governed  by 
a  uniform  system,  so  long  as  Congress  does  not  pass  any  law  to  regulate 
it,  or  allowing  the  States  so  to  do,  it  thereby  indicates  its  will  that  such 
commerce  shall  be  free  and  untrammelled.^' 

Since  this  decision  is  thus  a  reversal  of  the  decision  of 
1847,  and  of  the  policy  of  the  Government  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years,  it  is  suspicious  from  the  start. 

Its  effects  have  been  startlingly  bad.  The  New  York 
Times  says  : 

"  The  brewers  and  distillers  of  the  neighboring  State  of  Missouri 
have  established  a  thriving  traflBo  in  many  Kansas  towns  by  employ- 
ing as  agents  men  who  were  formerly  saloon-keepers,  who  have  car- 
ried on  an  illicit  trade  under  Prohibition,  and  sending  them  beer  in 


474  ECONOMICS    OK    PKOHIBITIOX. 

'  original  packages  '  as  small  as  pint  botlles,  transported  in  refrigferatbr 
cars,  and  whiskey  put  up  in  iwo-ounce  vials.  This,  in  effect,  restores 
all  the  evils  of  an  unrestricted  liqnor  traffic. 

"  Original  packages  are  not  defined  in  the  Supreme  Court  decision, 
and  the  sale  in  single  bottles,  flasks,  and  vials  is  an  evasion  of  thi 
probable  intent  of  the  decision.  Still,  it  would  be  a  difl&cult  mattei 
to  draw  the  line.  That  u  car-load  of  such  retail  packages  can  be  re- 
ceived and  peddled  out  one  by  one  and  the  operation  regarded  as 
part  and  parcel  of  inter-State  commerce,  to  bo  protected  against 
State  interference,  seems  a  rank  absurdity,  but  where  is  the  lino  to 
bo  established  when  sale  in  original  packages  through  local  agents  is 
once  authorized  ? 

"  The  question  of  drinking  on  the  premises  where  the  liquor  is  sold  has 
not  been  fully  tested,  but  District  Judge  Caldwell  has  decided  that 
the  purchaser  of  a  bottle  of  beer  or  a  vial  of  whiskey  could  drink  it 
wherever  he  pleased.  He  is  not  obliged  to  wait  until  he  goes  home, 
or  even  until  he  gets  outside  the  place  of  sale.  If  the  '  agent '  can 
Bell  unmolested,  anybody  may  buy  without  being  interfered  with, 
and  what  he  buys  he  can  consume  on  the  spot.  That  is  the  law  as 
now  apijlied  in  Kansas.  Another  evil  that  has  been  re-established 
is  the  sale  of  liquor  to  minor  children.  Several  '  agents  '  have  been 
arrested  for  selling  to  minors,  including  children  cf  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
age,  but  they  were  released  on  habeas  corpus.  Circuit  Judge  Foster 
holding  that  the  State  could  in  no  way  interfere  with  the  sale  of 
these  imported  '  original  packages,'  as  it  was  a  matter  of  inter- 
State  commerce." 

The  special  correspondence  of  the  New  York  Voice 
contains  tlie  following  : 

Gaknett,  Kan.,  July  20. 
Two  original  packaf^e  saloons  have  been  established,  and  another 
will  bo  opened  soon.  It  afl'ords  the  worst  phase  of  whiskey  drinking 
that  has  ever  been  in  this  State.  Boys  who  never  saw  a  saloon  ha%t 
BEEN  CABBiED  HOME  DRUNK.  The  general  disorder  is  worse  than  ii 
has  ever  been  since  Prohibition  was  e8tabli«hed.  The  first  week  the 
saloons  were  rather  orderly,  and  would  not  allow  drinking  near  the 
building.  Now  they  furnish  their  patrons  with  a  glass  and  let  them 
drink  just  outside  the  door  and  then  return  the  glass.  They  over- 
ride onr  local  laws  entirely,  and  Judge  Foster's  Court  sustains  them. 
The  people,  en  masse,  tried  to  persuade  them  not  to  open  up.  Now 
ve  are  waiting  impatiently,  of  course,  to  see  what  Congress  will  do. 


THh     "uKlul.NAl.    h.Vi  KAGK        DLliMuN.  4*4  J 

If  they  fail  to  give  us  relief  we  will  carry  the  hell  holes  out  of  town 
by  force.  Not  since  the  days  of  border  ruffianism  have  our  people 
been  so  greatly  agitated  as  they  are  about  the  "  Supremo  Court  sa- 
loons." A.  D.  McFadden,  Mayor. 

Think  of  the  moiirnful  pathos  of  those  two  lines  we 
have  capitalized — the  sorrow,  shame,  and  heartbreak,  the 
possible  life-long  tragedy — "  Boys  who  never  saw  a 
saloon  have  been  carried  home  drunk  !" 

Mr.  Perkins,  of  Kansas,  said,  in  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives  : 

**  Mr.  Speaker,  as  I  have  suggested,  in  my  judgment  no  decision 
rendered  in  the  history  of  the  Sapreme  .Court  \a  more  unfortunate 
than  this  recent  one.  In  my  own  State  it  has  sent  to  us  as  invaders 
hundreds  of  lawless  characters  from  the  sister  State  of  Missouri,  who 
have  organized  in  all  the  towns  and  hamlets  of  our  State  so-called 
'United  States  Supreme  Court  Saloons.'  [Laughter.]  They  may 
have  left  Missouri  for  the  good  of  Missouri,  but  they  have  not  come 
to  Kansas  for  the  good  of  our  commonwealth.  They  come  and  or- 
ganize  these  original-package  houses  and  bring,  under  the  decision 
of  the  Sapreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  these  feo-called  original 
packages  with  them  [exhibiting  paper  box  and  half-pint  flask],  and 
sell  them  without  restraint,  without  license,  without  regulation  or 
control,  to  A,  B,  or  C,  and  others  who  will  buy  them— to  minors,  to 
those  addicted  to  habits  of  using  intoxicating  liquors,  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  on  every  other  day  of  the  week,  and  each 
week  in  the  month,  and  all  restraint  and  regulation  under  State  leg- 
islation is  denied  and  treated  with  contempt." 

The  New  York  Herald  contains  the  following  item: 

Kansas  City,  Mo.,  July  G,  1890. 

A  prominent  brewer  said  to-day  : 

"  The  brewers  are  doing  their  best  to  quench  the  thirst  of  the 
Kansans,  and  are  succeeding  to  a  remarkable  degree.  Eocry  brewery 
in  the  city  is  running  to  its  fullest  capacity,  and  still  we  are  not  able  to 
supply  the  demand.  We  have  established  origiwil  package  houses  aU 
over  the  State,  and  the  sales  are  simply  enormous,  although  every  sale  is 
attended  with  great  danger.  We  try  to  keep  our  agents  within  the 
limits  of  the  law. 


476  ECOXOMICS    OF    PliOHIlJlTION. 

' '  This  shows  plainly  to  us  that  if  thb  State  or  Kansas  was  not 

CLOSED  AGAINST  OUB  BUSINESS  WE  WOULD  HAVE  TO  DOUBLE  THE  CAPACITY 
OF  EVERY  BREWEBY   IN  THE  CITY,  AND  EVEN  THEN  WE   WOULD  NOT  BE  ABLE 

TO  FILL  THE  ORDERS.  Nor  is  our  busiaess  tlio  only  one  that  is  bene- 
fited. The  box  factories  in  the  city  are  now  giving  employment  to 
200  more  persons  than  they  were  before  the  decision  was  made." 

Much  ingenuity  is  displayed  in  the  manner  of  putting  up  "  orig- 
inal packages,"  and  each  bottle  of  beer  that  goes  into  the  State  is  in 
a  neat  little  box  of  its  own.  If  some  enterprising  man  would  make 
packages  the  size  of  a  drink  he  would  reap  a  rich  harvest. 

In  the  debate  in  the  United  States  House  of  Kepre- 
sentatives,  Mr.  Henderson,  of  Iowa,  said  : 

"  I  am  free  to  say  that  no  decision  that  has  been  rendered  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  since  that  court  decided  that  a 
human  soul  was  a  proper  article  of  merchandise  has  so  excited  the 
feelings  of  this  nation.  .  .  . 

"  Since  1882,  when  my  State  first  took  its  strongest  position  touch- 
ing the  regulation  of  the  liquor  traffic,  we  have  not  had  such  disgrace- 
ful scenes  within  our  borders  as  this  mandate  of  the  Supreme  Court 
has  brought  to  our  doors.  The  letters  that  have  poured  in  upon  me, 
the  resolutions  adopted,  and  mass  meetings  held,  tell  me  of  a  condi- 
tion of  thing  for  which  I  must  blush,  and  which  I  will  not  describe 
in  the  National  Capitol.  But  there  is  such  a  condition  of  things 
that  I  would  bo  derelict  in  my  duty  as  a  Representative  if  I  did  not 
seek  in  some  legislative  avenue  to  find  a  remedy.  To  this  sad  con- 
dition others  have  testified  also.  ..." 

Of  the  actnal  working  of  the  decision  in  Iowa,  the  fol- 
lowing account  is  given  in  tlie  Christian  Voice  : 

"  The  '  original  package  houses'  are  the  latest  sucocssors  to  the  old 
Iowa  saloon.  A  sign  before  me  reads,  '  California  Winea — Whiskey 
—Bottles  a  Specialty,'— a  huge  board  clear  across  the  walk  on  the 
main  street  of  Carroll,  Iowa,  a  few  steps  from  the  depot.  How  this 
last  and  latest  imp  from  hell  posts  aluft  his  wicked  invitations  to  sin  ! 
Here  in  the  heart  of  Iowa,  too  I  Grand  old  decent,  sober,  Prohibi- 
tion  Iowa  I  This  foul  monster  rears  aloft  his  poisonous  fangs.  Yon 
people  in  license  States  are  so  used  to  it  I  presume  you  do  not  care 
so  much  ;  but  here  in  Iowa  the  past  ten  years  we  have  been  getting 
cleaned  np,  sweet,  decent,  sober,  industrious,  and  wondirfxiUy  prosper- 


THE    "t»hl(TlNAL    PA«  IvAUh    '    i>Lcl»luN.  477 

oua,  and  here,  in  spite  of  an  overwhelming  and  strong  '  public  senti- 
ment,' is  the  nest  of  vipers  and  brood  of  hell  set  to  hatch  and  wpawn 
npon  the  sober,  law-abiding  Christian  people  of  this  grand  old  State, 
a  brood  of  loafers,  tramps,  thugs,  and  thieves.  What  a  shame  is  all 
this  !  But  there  is,  there  must  be  a  remedy.  The  present  Wilson 
Bill,  which  has  just  passed  the  Senate,  must  pass  the  House  or  there 
will  be  woe,  trouble,  and  sorrow  in  thousands  of  homes  now  happy 
and  sober. 

*'  A  friend  of  mine,  a  deputy  sheriff  ai\,d  police  officer  in  one  of 
the  largest  cities  of  Iowa,  told  mo  last  week  that  this  original  pack- 
age business  had  produced  more  drunkenness  and  arrests  in  a  month  than 
hid  hem  seen  in  the  city  for  years.  The  express  companies  are  loaded 
with  beer  barrels,  and  the  whole  filthy,  wicked  business  seems  to  bo 
speedily  regaining  its  grip  of  death,  poverty,  and  taxes  on  the  people. 

"Let  every  voter  watch  and  spot  every  representative  that  votes 
against  the  Wilson  Bill  in  Congress. ' ' 

We  have  been  told,  with  utterly  wearisome  iteration, 
'*  Prohibition  don't  prohibit ;"  *'  Prohibition  is  only  an- 
other name  for  free  rum,"  etc.,  etc.  Why,  then,  this 
mad  rush  of  "original  packages"  to  the  prohibitory 
States  ?  That  deadly  enemy  of  Prohibition,  the  Omaha 
Bee,  inadvertently  lets  the  cat  out  of  the  bag  in  a  recent 
issue  as  follows  : 

"  A  small  but  enthusiastic  bunch  of  Prohibitionists  journeyed  to 
the  capital  of  Kansas  last  week  to  proclaim  the  glories  of  statutory 
sobriety,  which  existed  only  in  their  imagination.  They  trimmed 
the  whiskers  of  that  venerable  fiction,  '  Prohibition  prohibits,'  while 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  meeting  place  was  a  throng  of  thirsty 
residents  rushing  about  with  original  packages.  F,>r  the  first  time  in 
fice  years  liquor  was  sold  openly  in  the  city,  and  171  less  than  eight  hours  the 
supply  was  exhausted,  without  apparently  diminishing  the  demand." 

It  is  manifest  to  any  business  man  tl\at  if  that  place 
had  been  stocked  full  before  with  "  free  rum,''  it  would 
not  have  paid  to  open  "  original  package  "  establish- 
ments there,  and  they  would  have  met  no  such  rushing 
demand   as  to  "  exiiaust   the   supply  in  eight   hours." 


4T8  ECONOMICS    OF    PKOHIBITION. 

Prohibition  had  kept  liquor  from  being  **  sold  openly  in 
the  city  for  five  years  ;"  and  when  all  is  said  and  done, 
the  illicit  sale  does  not  begin  to  meet  the  demand  of  tho 
inebriate  portion  of  any  community.  Hence  the  eager- 
ness for  ''  anything  to  beat  Prohibition."  Undoubtedly 
there  are  horses  stolen  in  Kansas  and  Iowa  now.  But  it 
is  under  diflilculties  that  are  very  depressing  to  the  busi- 
ness. If  only  some  Supreme  Court  decision  could  be 
secured  to  make  it  lawful  to  steal  them  *^  in  the  original 
packages,"  for  instance,  the  farmers  would  soon  discover 
what  a  good  law  they  have  now.  So  one  effect  of  the 
''  original  package  "  invasion,  and  of  the  exciting  meet- 
ings and  debates  on  the  subject,  has  been  to  bring  out 
new  evidence  of  the  excellence  of  Prohibition.  The 
Topeka  Capital  comes  out  with  the  following  : 

TOPEKA   DRUNK  VS.    TOPEKA   SOBER. 

For  a  year  the  most  beautiful  capital  city  in  the  West  has  been  sober. 
Tlie  peace,  the  quiel,  the  good  order  havehecomethe pride  and  the  ghi-y  of  the 
people.  Strangers  have  commented  with  wonder  and  amazement  upon 
the  absence  of  saloons,  and  the  people  of  the  whole  State  have  come 
to  believe  the  capital  of  their  splendid  commonwealth  a  model  city. 
The  United  Staies  Supreme  Court's  decision  has  changed  all  this.  The 
"  original  packages"  are  today  selling  $1,000  worth  of  liquors  under  the 
license  of  our  highest  court. 

Dozens  of  drunken  men  are  to  be  seen  in  the  alleys,  on  the  streets,  at  the 
depot,  and  it  ia  with  shame  and  humiliation  that  we  see  the  work  for 
sobriety  and  good  government  crumbling  to  pieces  before  our  eyes. 
The  old  saloon-keepers,  driven  into  Missouri  to  follow  their  calling 
of  making  drunkards,  creating  crime  and  pauperism,  are  creeping 
back,  and  with  an  insolent  leer  opening  their  hell  holes  in  defiance 
of  a  public  sentiment  that  finds  itself  powerless  to  protect  the  homes 
of  the  people.  One  benefit  of  this  will  be  to  show  the  difference 
between  Topekf\  sober  and  Topeka  drunk. 

Every  citizen  interested  in  Topeka  sober  should  write  our  Con- 
gressmen and  Senators  to  urge  them  to  give  us  some  legislation.  Let 
Congress  give  ns  the  relief  demanded,  and  Topeka  will  crush  out 


THK    "UKIGINAL    PACKAGE"    DEOIBION.  47» 

every  original  package  houae  within  twenty-four  hourK.  The  indig- 
nation  of  the  people  against  these  violators  of  the  laws  of  our  Stabe 
is  deep  and  moat  determined,  and  only  the  respect  for  the  highest 
courts  of  the  land  prevents  the  original  package  venders  from  being 
summarily  driven  to  Missouri.  The  Otpital  counsels  patience  and 
legal  methods  until  Congress  gives  the  State  the  right  to  stop  the 
present  sales,  and  then  there  should  be  no  mercy  upon  the  merce- 
nary scoundrels  who  are  selling  to-day  in  violation  of  our  constitution 
and  laws. 

An  enthusiastic  convention  of  3,000  delegates  from 
all  portions  of  Kansas  was  lield  in  Topeka  July  16th. 
Meeting  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  they  filled 
that,  and  overflowed  into  the  Senate  Chamber.  Filling 
that,  they  overflowed  upon  the  steps  of  the  Capitol,  and 
out  into  the  open  air.  The  three  meetings  were  in  prog- 
ress at  once.  Amid  tremendous  enthusiasm  an  address 
was  adopted  full  of  eloquent,  heart-stirring,  and  con- 
vincing statements  of  fact.  The  address  was  in  part  as 
follows: 

"  The  State  of  Kansas  is  the  homestead  of  Prohibition,  and  Prohi- 
bition acquired  its  right  to  the  soil  of  our  State  by  permanent  occu- 
pancy, and  by  making  lasting  and  valuable  improvements.  The 
motes  and  bounds  of  its  possessions  are  the  exterior  lines  of  the 
State.  Its  warranty  deed  is  recorded  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and 
its  muniments  of  title  can  be  seen  in  every  church  V>uilding.  school- 
house  and  happy  home  in  our  prosperous  State.  It  is  the  fairest  in- 
heritance ever  given  to  a  contented  people,  and  the  rum  power  has 
no  mortgage  on  it. 

"  The  following  official  figures  are  presented  as  showing  the  effects 
of  Prohibition  in  Kansas  aud  in  support  of  the  statement  made 
above. 

"  The  school  population  of  Kansas  in  1880  was  340,647  ;  in  1888, 
a  period  of  eight  years,  there  were  532,010  children  of  school  age  on 
Kansas  soil,  an  increase  of  191,363  in  eight  years. 

*•  In  1880  the  assessed  valuation  of  Kansas  property  was  $160,570,- 
701  ,•  in  1889  this  aggregate  is  swelled  to  $360,815,033,  a  gain  of  more 
than  100  per  cent,  in  nine  years  of  Prohibition. 


480  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

"  As  against  the  argument  of  financial  decay,  rxe  offer  the  uddi. 
tional  proof  of  confidence  in  the  fact  that  within  five  years  more 
than  five  thousand  miles  of  railroad  have  been  constructed  within 
our  borders,  until  Kansas,  with  her  9,249  miles  of  main  and  side 
track,  stands  second  in  point  of  mileage  of  all  the  States  in  the 
Union. 

"  When  Prohibition  came,  Kansas  had  917  convicts  in  her  peni- 
tentiary and  a  total  population  in  the  State  of  996,096  ;  after  nine 
years  of  Prohibition  and  an  increase  in  population  of  600,000  she  has 
873  convicts  in  her  penitentiary,  an  actual  decrease  of  five  jjer  cent., 
notwithstanding  the  increase  in  population  Our  sister  State  of  Ne- 
braska, with  a  High  License  system,  during  the  same  time  has  in- 
creased her  prison  population  167  per  cent.  The  prison  population 
of  Nebraska  has  outran  the  general  growth  of  population  "47  per  cent. 
Kansas,  with  her  1,600,000  population,  has  174  in  her  reform  school 
for  boys.  Nebraska,  with  her  estimated  population  of  1,000,000,  has 
245  boys  in  her  reform  school.  Nebraska,  with  600,000  less  in  pop- 
ulation, has  71  more  boys  in  prison  than  Kansas. 

"  For  the  purpose  of  comparison,  we  will  parallel  the  rates  of  taxes 
in  Kansas  and  Nebraska  for  the  same  years  that  we  have  had  Prohibi- 
tion  in  Kansas  : 

Nebraska.  Kansas. 

1880  assessed 95  55 

1881  "        85  50 

1882  ••       96  45 

1883  "        81  43 

1884  ••        76.9  45 

1885  ••        77.2  39 

1886  " 76.2  40 

1887  "        80.2  40 

1888  ♦'        75  34 

1889  •'        G3.3  40 

"  The  average  rate  in  Kan.sas  under  Prohibition  has  been  43  cents 
and  5  mills  on  the  $100,  while  in  Nebraska  under  High  License  it  has 
been  56  cents  and  7  mills  ;  13  cents  and  2  mills  lower  in  Kansas  than 
in  Nebraska.  The  rate  has  increased  in  Nebraska  and  decreased  in 
Kansas,  the  Nebraska  rate  for  1889  being  nearly  60  per  cent  higher 
than  in  Kansas. 

"The  material  prosperity  in  Kansas,  as  shown  by  the  silent  rec- 
ords, is  more  than  100  per  cent,  better  than  that  of  her  High  License 
neighbor,  Nebraska. 

"  The  revenue  paid  the  general  Government  on  spirituous  liquors 


THE    "ORIGINAL   PACKAGE"   DECISION.  4S1 

is  ft  small  pittance  compared  with  the  total  cost  of  the  amount  con- 
sumed. 

"  There  was  paid  the  Government  as  revenue  in  the  two  States  the 
following  sums  in  the  years  named  : 

Kan.  paid.  Neb.  paid, 

1882 $63,609  $965,149 

1883 69,112  1,180,607 

1884 64,635  1,354,859 

1885  64,344  1.796,031 

1886 74,974  1,987.167 

1887 57.382  2,142.038 

1888 57.382  2,518,742 

1889. 25,878  2,142.162 

"  There  has  been  a  decrease  in  Prohibition  Kansas  of  49  per  cent, 
since  1882.  and  an  iucrease  iu  High  License  Nebraska  of  122  percent. 
Kansas  has  paid  to  the  Government  as  revenue  on  liquors  consumed 
by  her  people  less  than  one-half  million  dollars  since  the  days  of  her 
Prohibition,  while  Nebraska,  with  600,000  less  people,  has  paid  the 
Government  over  $14,000,000  in  money,  or  twenty-eight  times  as 
much  as  Kansas." 

In  a  recent  letter,  written  from  Ottawa,  Kan.,  by 
Eev.  Dr.  J.  L.  Hnrlbut  to  the  Central  New  Jersey 
Times,  he  Bays : 

"  Some  suggestive  figures  were  shown  me  the  other  day,  supplied 
by  the  Secretary  of  State,  for  Kansas  and  Nebraska  [quoting  the 
above  figures]. 

**  There  was  also  shown  me  another  set  of  figures,  taken  from 
K.  G.  Dun  &  Co.'s  commercial  register,  which  can  hardly  be  called  a 
temperance  text-book.  In  1889  there  were  in  Kansas  24.929  business 
houses,  against  20,771  in  Nebraska  ;  a  difiEerence  in  favor  of  Kansas 
of  4,158,  showing  that  business  thrives  without  liquor  stores.  But 
in  Nebraska  there  were  in  the  year  1889,  272  failures  in  business, 
against  183  in  Kansas,  or  a  difi'erence  in  favor  of  Kansas  of  89,  In 
other  words.  Prohibition  Kansas  had  one  failure  to  every  one  hundred 
and  thirty-six  business  houses,  while  High  License  Nebraska  had  one 
failure  to  every  seventy-six  busineps  houses.  That  is,  the  chance 
of  success  in  business  is  nearly  twice  as  great  under  Prohibition  as 
under  license. 

"  A  butcher  in  a  town  in  Kansas  a  few  weeks  ago  noticed  that  8tV' 
oral  of  his  cust'^me^'.s,  who  had  for  years  been  paying  cash  for  (heir  meat, 


483  BeONOMI-CS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

t/jere  i%ow  asking  credit  and  running  vp  accounts.  He  found  Ihat  it  waa 
coincident  witli  the  opening  of  an  *  original  package  '  store  in  the 
town.  People  were  spending  their  money  on  bottles  of  liquor,  and 
hence  had  none  for  the  hulcher.  This  fact  was  given  me  by  a  reputable 
gentleman,  who  named  the  town  and  named  the  butcher.  Perhaps 
it  will  help  to  explain  why  there  should  be  less  business  houses,  but 
more  failures  in  business  in  a  license  State  than  in  a  Prohibition 
State." 

In  the  debate,  previously  referred  to,  in  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives,  Mr.  Dingley,  of  Maine, 
said  in  part : 

"  Our  prohibitory  laws  in  Maine  have  aided  materially  in  making 
the  temperance  sentiment  which  prevails  in  Maine.  .  .  . 

'*  These  general  conclusions  of  our  own  people  as  to  the  benefits 
of  our  policy  of  prohibiting  instead  of  licensing  dram-shops  are  con- 
firmed by  an  examination  of  the  internal  revenue  statistics.  For 
revenue  purposes,  as  is  well  known,  the  United  States  imposes  a  tax 
on  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors.  For  the  year 
ending  May  Ist,  1889,  the  revenue  from  this  source  was  $98,575,073, 
or  SI. 95  per  inhabitant  on  the  basis  of  the  population  of  1880. 

"  As  these  taxes  on  manufacturers  and  dealers  of  intoxicating  liq- 
uors are  collected  with  substantially  uniform  thoroughness  in  every 
State  of  the  Union,  a  comparison  of  the  amount  collected  in  the  sev- 
eral  States  gives  us  sopie  idea  of  the  relative  extent  of  the  manufac- 
ture and  sale  of  distilled  and  fermented  liquors.  In  New  York  the 
amount  of  tax  collected  by  the  Government  from  this  source  was 
$2.30  per  inhabitant  ;  in  New  Jersey,  $2.95  ;  in  Pennsylvania,  $1.49, 
and  in  Maine,  3|  cents  per  inhabitant. 

"  The  suggestion  has  been  made  that  Prohibition  mainly  interferes 
with  the  traffic  in  malt  liquors,  but  does  not  seriously  restrict  the 
traflSc  in  distilled  liquors. 

"  Inasmuch  as  the  Government  imposes  a  higher  tax  on  retail 
dealers  in  distilled  liquors  than  on  retail  dealers  in  malt  liquors,  and 
keeps  the  two  classes  of  liquor-dealers  separate,  we  have  reliable 
means  of  comparing  the  number  of  retail  dealers  of  distilled  liquors 
in  the  several  States,  as  it  is  well  known  that  nearly  all  persons  who 
propose  to  sell  such  liquors  pay  the  small  United  States  tax  of  $25 
rather  than  run  the  link  of  incurring  ihe  severe  penalties  of  the 
United  States  laws. 


THE    ''ORIGINAL   PACKAGE "    DECISION.  483 

"According  to  the  oflQcial  returns  of  the  officers  of  the  internal 
revenue  for  the  year  ending  May  1st.  1890,  there  were  185,868  retail 
dealers  in  distilled  liquors  in  the  United  States,  or  1  liquor-deuler 
to  every  275  inhabitants,  on  the  basis  of  the  census  of  1880. 

"  In  New  York  there  was  1  retail  dealer  in  distilled  liquors  to  every 
150  inhabitants  ;  in  New  Jersey,  1  to  175  ;  in  Ohio,  1  to  230  ;  in 
Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts,  1  to  400  ;  in  Indiana,  1  to  325  ;  in 
Delaware,  1  to  160,  and  in  California,  1  to  75. 

*'  The  average  in  all  the  States  which  have  general  license  laws  is 
one  dram-shop  to  250  inhabitants. 

"  In  Maine  there  is  1  retail  dealer  in  distilled  liquors  to  every  750 
inhabitants  ;  in  Vermont,  1  to  820  ;  in  Iowa,  1  to  520  ;  and  in  Kan- 
sas, 1  to  800." 

When  the  United  States  tax  on  liquors,  which  else- 
where runs  up  to  $2.95  per  inhabitant,  is  cut  down  in 
Maine  to  3  cents  per  inhabitant,  it  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  Prohibition  prohibits.  Besides,  the  Govern- 
ment tax  on  liquors  may  be  roughly  stated  at  about  one- 
tenth  of  their  actual  cost  to  the  consumer.  So  Maine 
has  spent  but  thirty  cents  per  inhabitant  for  liquor,  while 
New  York  and  New  Jersey  have  spent  from  $23  to  $29 
per  inhabitant.  This  money  which  Maine  has  not  spent 
upon  the  saloons  could  be  and  has  been  spent  upon  the 
homes  of  the  people. 

But  what  of  the  future  ?  The  Western  Broker^  in  a 
despatch  from  Topeka,  Kan.,  of  June  25th,  quotes  the 
following  from  United  States  District  Attorney  J.  W. 
Ady: 

**  The  Supreme  Court  decides  that  the  State  laws  now  in  force  have 
no  application  to  the  subject  of  liquors  imported  and  sold  in  original 
packages.  It  is  not  a  crime  now  to  make  such  sales  within  the  State. 
Congress  has  no  power  to  make  any  act  done  in  Kansas  a  crime 
under  our  State  laws,  and  Congress  does  not  attempt  to  do  so.  After 
the  Wilson  Bill  passes,  the  sale  of  liquor  in  original  packages  will 
still  continue  to  be  inter-State  commerce.  The  court  says  inter  State 
commerce  is  free,  and  the  presumption  that  Congress  and  the  States 


484  ECONOMICS   OF   PROHIBITION. 

intend  that  it  shall  be  free  will  continue  iintil  there  is  a  dirsct  act 
on  the  subject.  All  State  laws  on  that  subject  now  are  no  laws ;  they  aie 
dead  matter. ,    The  Wilson  BUI  will  not  infuse  new  life  into  them.* ' 

This  may  indicate  the  future  line  of  battle  of  the 
liquor  men,  and  their  purpose  to  challenge  the  Wilson 
Bill  before  the  Supreme  Court.  It  is  urged  that  what 
the  court  says  of  *'  the  permission  "  of  Congress  is  what 
lawyers  call  an  obiter  dictum,  a  passing  remark,  and  by 
no  means  equal  to  a  formal  decision.  The  principle  of 
the  '*  original  package  decision  "  will  still  be  in  question, 
and  to  that  decision  it  is  to  be  objected  : 

1.  Tiiat  it  strikes  down  the  police  power  of  the  States, 
which  Congress  can  neither  assume  nor  restore.  The 
general  Government  cannot  exercise  police  power  within 
a  State.  That  would  be  the  last  reach  of  centralization, 
and  would  virtually  obliterate  all  State  lines.  On  this 
point,  Mr.  Davis,  Counsel  for  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  License  cases  of  1847,  well  said  : 

*' It  will  appear  in  the  progress  of  this  inquiry  that  the  United 
States,  have  no  power  to  regulate  the  trafl&c  in  wines  and  spirits 
within  the  States  ;  and  if  the  State  has  no  such  power,  then  the  right 
is  abrogated. 

"  Is  not  such  a  result  hostile  to  the  intent  of  all  parties  to  the  Con- 
stitution ?  The  framers  did  not  intend  it,  and  the  States  could  not 
have  contemplated  it." 

yj  The  actual  effects  of  the  new  decision  are  proving  the 
correctness  of  this  statement.  The  decision  provides  for 
an  era  of  ^'  free  rum,"  such  as  has  never  been  known  on 
the  American  continent.  Even  *^  in  good  old  colony 
times  "  there  were  some  restrictions.  Of  the  present 
status  Senator  Edmunds  said  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  : 

"  It  is  a  very  curious  circumstance,  au  interesting  one,  that  we 
have  reached  a  condition  of  things  where,  according  to  the  debate 


THE    '*  ORIGINAL    PACKAGE"    DECISION.  4ft6 

here  and  the  judgments  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
the  States,  as  the  Supremo  Conrt  say,  have  no  power  to  deal  with  this 
Rtibject  ;  and  now  we  are  told  here  that  Congress  has  not  any  power 
to  deal  with  it.  So  the  result  of  the  performance  is  that  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  there  must  bo  an  inherent,  indi- 
vidual civil,  personal  right  in  every  man  in  one  State  to  carry  what- 
ever another  State  considers  to  be  injurious  to  its  safety  and  life  and 
welfare  into  it  and  sell  it  ;  that  Congress  cannot  stop  it  ;  the  States 
cannot  stop  it,  say  the  Supreme  Court,  unless  Congress  does  some- 
thing, and  we  all  say  Congress  cannot  do  that  something.  ...  It 
is  enough  to  state  such  a  proposition  to  show  that  somewhere  there 
is  a  fault  in  the  logic  of  somebody." 

The  Supreme  Court  has  abolished  the  police  power  of 
the  States,  and  Congress  has  and  can  have  no  police 
power  to  supply  its  place. 

Congress  cannot  say,  for  instance,  that  an  *'  original 
package"  shall  not  be  sold  to  a  minor  or  a  drunkard 
within  a  State  ;  or  that  it  shall  not  be  sold  after  mid- 
night, or  *' to  be  drank  on  the  premises."  All  those 
things  belong  to  the  police  power,  which  the  State  alone 
can  wield. 

In  a  previous  decision  the  Supreme  Court  declared  : 

"  Whatever  difference  of  opinion  may  exist  as  to  the  extent  and 
boundaries  of  the  police  power,  and  however  difficult  it  may  bo  to 
render  a  satisfactory  definition  of  it,  thero  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that 
it  does  extend  to  the  pbotection  or  the  lives,  health,  and  pbopertt 
or  THE  CITIZENS,  and  to  the  pbeseevation  op  good  okder  and  the 
PUBLIC  MOBALS.  Thk  LEGISLATURE  CANNOT,  by  any  Contract,  divest 
itself  of  the  poweb  to  provide  for  these  objects.  They  belong 
emphatically  to  that  class  of  objects  which  demand  the  application 
of  the  maxim,  solus  populi  suprema  lex;  and  they  are  to  be  attained 
and  provided  for  by  such  appropriate  means  as  the  legislative  discre- 
tion may  devise.  That  discretion  can  no  more  be  babqained  away 
than  thb  powbb  itself.  ' ' 

Then  it  is  evident  that  the  States  could  not  surrender 
that  power  even  to  the  United  States  G^overnment,  and 


ir 


486  ECONOMICS   OF    PROHIBITION. 

never  meaiit  to  do  so.     On  this  Justice  Story  said  on  a 
former  occasion  : 

"  The  police  power  belongiDg  to  the  States,  in  virtue  of  their  gen- 
eral sovereignty,  extends  over  all  subjects  within  the  territorial  limits 
of  the  States,  and  has  never  been  conceded  to  the  United  States," 

Massachusetts  accepted  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  came  into  the  Union  with  the  Twenty-Eight 
Gallon  Law  on  her  statute-book. 

By  the  Tenth  Amendment,  ^'  the  powers  not  dele- 
gated to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  pro- 
hibited by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  re- 
spectively, or  to  the  people." 

The  inference  is  irresistible  that  the  power  given  to 
the  United  States  to  regulate  commerce  between  the 
States  was  never  meant  to  permit  the  citizens  of  one 
State  to  establish  a  nuisance  in  another  State — to  set  up 
a  place  for  the  manufacture  of  drunkards,  or  to  sell  fiery 
intoxicants  to  its  little  children. 

If  we  grant  the  inter-State  conmierce  power  of  Con- 
gress to  be '*  exclusive  "  in  its  sphere  as  between  the 
States,  we  must  hold  the  police  power  of  the  State ^'ws^ 
as  exclusive  in  its  sphere  within  the  State — an  older 
power,  and  more  vital  to  the  existence  of  civilized 
society. 

2.  This  decision  virtually  claims  for  the  United  States 
Government  the  right  to  force  a  sale  within  a  State  in 
the  interest  of  the  importer,  if  buyers  can  be  found.  It 
says : 

*'  The  power  vested  in  Congress  '  to  regulate  commerce  with  for- 
eign nations  and  among  the  several  States,  and  with  the  Indian 
tribes,'  is  the  power  to  prescribe  the  rule  by  which  that  commerce  is 
to  be  governed,  and  is  a  power  complete  in  itself,  acknowledging  no 
limitations  other  than  those  prescribed  in  the  Constitution.     It  is 


THE    "ORIGINAL   PACKAGE"   DECISION.  467 

coextensive  with  the  subject  on  which  it  acts,  and  cannot  be  stopped 
at  the  external  boundary  of  a  State,  but  must  enter  Us  interior  and  must 
6«  capable  of  authorizinrj  the  disposition  of  those  articles  which  it  intro- 
duces, so  that  they  may  become  mingled  with  Vie  common  mass  of  property 
within  the  territory  entered." 

The  United  States  follows  tlie  imported  package  till  it 
is  **  mingled  in  the  common  mass  of  property  "  within 
the  State,  which  will  in  many  cases  be  only  when  it  is 
mingled  in  the  stomach  of  the  drinker.  Then  pauper- 
ism, murder,  conflagration  may  follow,  and  the  State  be 
left  to  bear  the  consequences  and  meet  the  expenses. 
By  this  decision  a  man  may  lawfully  do  in  another  State 
what  he  cannot  lawfully  do  in  his  own.  The  Cincinnati 
brewer  or  distiller  cannot  sell  a  drop  in  a  Local  Option 
town  in  Ohio,  but  he  may  sell  all  he  wants  to  in  Local 
Option  towns  in  New  York,  -where  New  York  brewers 
and  distillers  oannot  sell.  Then  the  New  York  brewers 
and  distillers  can  go  right  over  and  sell  in  all  Local 
Option  towns  in  Ohio,  where  Ohio  brewers  and  distillers 
cannot  sell.  Thus,  we  have  the  whole  liquor  traffic  play- 
ing at  a  gigantic  game  of  "  Pussy  wants  a  corner."  It 
does  not  look  reasonable. 

In  the  debate  in  the  Senate  on  the  Wilson  bill,  Sena- 
tor Edmunds  said  : 

•'  Now,  where  is  the  line  ?  The  line  is,  I  think,  a  line  which  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  appears  to  have  gone  over,  that 
when  your  act  of  transportation,  your  act  of  commerce  among  the 
States  or  from  foreign  nations  has  become  complete,  and  the  word 
'  among '  no  longer  applies,  and  the  commodity  is  in  the  State  where 
its  transportation  is  ended,  and  it  is  in  the  hands  of  its  owner  there, 
whether  that  owner  be  a  citizen  of  one  State  or  another  makes  no 
difference,  it  is  then  just  like  the  commodity  of  the  same  nature,  all 
the  laws  being  equal,  in  the  hands  of  the  citizen  of  the  State  who 
made  it  there  himself,  the  subject  of  the  State  law  ;  and  that  is  what 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  within  the  next  twenty  yeara 
will  come  to." 


488  ECOXOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

This  would  seem  to  be  the  only  escape  from  the  Ciaim 
that  every  man  possesses  rights  in  any  State  wliere  he 
does  not  belong,  such  as  no  man  possesses  in  the  State 
where  he  does  belong. 

This  claim,  which  the  Supreme  Court  maintains,  of  the 
riglit  of  Congress  to  follow  an  imported  article  in  behalf 
of  the  importer  '^  till  it  is  broken  up  and  so  mingled 
"vvitli  the  common  mass  of  property  within  the  State,"  is 
a  doubtful  one.  True,  it  has  been  repeatedly  affirmed  by 
the  court,  but  that  proves  nothing,  for,  as  we  now  see, 
decisions  that  have  stood  uncliallenged  for  forty  years 
may  be  swept  away  in  a  day.  The  claim  seems  to  prove 
too  much.  For  if  the  prohibition  of  sale  of  the  original 
package  to  the  first  buyer  is  a  restraint  upon  inter-State 
commerce,  so  is  the  prohibition  of  sale  to  the  twentieth 
buyer.  In  the  license  cases  of  1847  this  was  particularly 
noticed.     Justice  McLean  said  : 

"  This  limitation  may  possibly  lessen  the  sale  of  the  article. 
This  may  he  the  result  of  any  regulation  on  the  subject.  But  it  consti- 
tutes no  objection  to  the  law.  An  inn-keeper  is  forbidden  to  allow 
drunkenness  in  his  house,  and  if  this  prohibition  be  observed,  a  less 
quantity  of  rum  is  sold.  Is  this  unconstitutional  because  it  may  re- 
duce the  importation  of  the  article  ?  .  .  .  No  one  could  fail  to  see 
that  the  injunction  was  laid  for  the  maintenance  of  good  order  and 
good  morals.  To  reject  this  view  would  make  the  excess  of  the  drunk- 
ard a  constitutional  duty,  to  encourage  the  importation  of  ardent 
spirits." 

In  the  earlier  decision  Justice  Daniel  said  even  of  im- 
ports from  foreign  countries,  where  it  was  claimed  that 
the  importer  purchased  the  right  to  sell  by  paying  duty 
to  tlie  Government : 

*'  No  such  right  is  purchased  by  the  importer  ;  he  cannot  purchase 
from  the  Government  that  which  it  could  not  insure  him,  a  sale  indepen- 
dent of  the  laws  and  policy  of  the  State." 

Chief  Justice  Taney  eaid  : 


THE    "ORIGINAL    PACKAGE"    DECISION.  489 

"  Although  a  State  is  bound  to  receivo  and  to  permit  the  sale  by 
the  importer  of  any  article  of  merchandise  which  CongreBS  authorizes 
to  be  imported,  it  is  not  hound  io furnish  a  market  for  it,  nor  to  abstain 
frmn  the  passage  of  any  law  which  il  may  deem  necessary  or  advisable  io 
guard  the  health  or  morals  of  its  citizens,  although  such  law  may  dis- 
courage importation." 

More  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  in  the  Internal 
Revenue  Act  of  June  30th,  1864:,  Section  78,  Congress 
declared  that  even  the  payment  of  a  special  license  fee 
to  the  United  States  should  not  authorize  any  person  to 
make  sales  within  a  State  contrary  to  the  laws  of  that 
State.  Tiie  law  still  continues  in  force  as  a  section  of 
the  Internal  Revenue  Laws,  as  follows  : 

Section  32-13  :  '*  The  payment  of  any  tax  imposed  by  the  Internal 
Revenue  Laws  for  carrying  on  any  trade  or  business  shall  not  be  held 
to  exempt  any  person  from  any  penalty  or  punishment  provided  by 
the  laws  of  any  State  for  carrying  on  the  same  within  the  State,  or  in 
any  manner  to  authorize  the  commencement  or  continuance  of  such 
trade  or  business  contrary  to  the  laws  of  such  State,  or  in  places  pro- 
hibited by  municipal  law;  nor  shall  the  payment  of  any  such  tax  be 
held  to  prohibit  any  State  from  placing  a  duty  or  tax  on  the  same 
trade  or  business,  for  State  or  other  purposes." 

Commenting  on  the  preparations  of  the  people  of 
Kansas  to  resist  the  sales  of  ^'  original  packages,"  £o7i- 
forVs  Wine  and  Spirit  Circular  asks,  menacingly  : 

"  Are  the  people  of  the  State  of  Kansas  ready  to  rebel  against  the 
United  States?  Whenever  they  are,  they  will  hear  from  the  Govern- 
ment in  a  manner  not  to  be  misunderstood." 

Which  is  nothing  less  than  a  threat  to  force  the  saloon 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  upon  the  people  of  the  pioneer 
battle  State  of  Freedom  !  It  has  been  said  that  nothing 
did  so  much  to  arouse  the  North  for  emancipation  as  the 
stretching  of  chains  around  Boston  Court  House,  and  the 
marching  of  slaves  back  into  slavery  between,  files  of 


490  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITIOX. 

United  States  troops.  Then  the  iron  entered  into  the 
soul  of  Northern  freemen,  and  slavery  was  doomed.  We 
all  know  that  the  Liquor  Traffic  is  a  hard  master.  But 
if  a  regiment  of  United  States  troops  should  be  marched 
across  the  border  of  Kansas  to  establish  the  saloon  bj 
the  bayonet  under  the  dear  old  flag,  the  long-suppressed 
indignation  of  all  the  good  would  rise  in  a  tempest  of 
righteous  wrath,  and  men  who  never  cared  for  temper-- 
ance  before  would  suddenly  find  themselves  Prohibition- 
ists. 

Yet  the  logic  of  the  Supreme  Court  decision  leads  to 
just  that,  to  force  the  saloon  by  the  bayonet — if  neces- 
sary— upon  an  unwilling  people.  If  this  is  not  law,  it 
must  be  shown  not  to  be.  If  it  is  law,  it  must  be  made 
not  to  be. 

3.  This  decision  treats  intoxicating  liquors  "  like  any 
other  commodity.'^  The  entire  argument  is  based  on 
this  assumption. 

The  decision  says  : 

"  That  ardent  spirits,  distilled  liquors,  ale  and  beer  are  subjects 
of  exchange,  barter,  and  trafl&c  like  any  other  commodity  in  which  a 
right  of  traffic  exists,  and  are  so  recognized  by  the  usages  of  the 
commercial  world,  the  laws  of  Congress  and  the  decisions  of  courts, 
is  not  denied.  Being  thus  articles  of  commerce,  can  a  State,  in  the 
absence  of  legislation  on  the  part  of  Congress,  prohibit  their  impor- 
tation from  abroad  or  from  a  sister  State  ?  or  when  imported,  prohibit 
their  sale  by  the  importer?  .  .  .  Whatever  our  individual  views 
may  be  as  to  the  deleterious  or  dangerous  qualities  of  particular 
articles,  we  canndt  hold  that  any  artxcles  which  Congress  recognizes 
as  subjects  of  inter-State  commerce  are  not  such,  or  that  whatever  are 
thus  recognized  can  V»e  controlled  by  State  laws  amounting  to  regula- 
tions, while  they  retain  that  character." 

AYe  are  reminded  of  the  strikingly  similar  language 
used  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  old  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision : 


THE    •*  ORIGINAL  -package"   DECISION.  491 

"  7he  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in 
ih€  Constitution.  The  right  to  traffic  in  it  like  an  ordinary  article  qf 
mercJiandise  and  pnperiy  vrjis  guurauteed,  etc.  And  no  word  can  be 
fonnd  in  the  Constitution  which  gives  Congress  a  greater  power  over 
Hhwe  property,  or  which  eni Vies  properly  of  tluil  kind  to  less  pro'ection  than- 
properly  (f  any  other  description.  The  only  power  conferred  is  the  power 
coupled  with  the  duty  of  guarding  and  protecting  the  owner  in  his  rights  /'* 

Then,  as  now,  the  Supreme  Court  saw  only  **  prop-  ^ 
ertj,"  while  the  nation  saw  human  character  and  homes, 
human  hearts  and  lives. 

But  intoxicating  liquors  are  by  almost  universal  legis-  6/ 
lation  treated  as  unlike  *'  any  other  commodity."  From 
the  foundation  of  our  Government,  there  have  been  laws 
forbidding  their  sale  without  a  special  license,  or  in  less 
than  certain  stipulated  quantities,  28  gallons,  10  gallons, 
5  gallons,  etc.  Laws  forbidding  their  sale  on  election 
days,  to  minors,  to  persons  in  the  habit  of  becoming  in- 
toxicated, or  forbidding  their  sale  after  ten  o'clock  at 
night,  or  other  stipulated  hour,  have  been  frequently 
passed.  There  have  been  laws  giving  damages  to  rela- 
tives for  any  injuries  and  losses  resulting  from  their  sale, 
and  laws  prohibiting  their  sale  in  thousands  of  towns, 
and  over  the  entire  area  of  great  States. 

What  other  **  commodity  ''  has  been  treated  like  this? 

Think  of  a  law  forbidding  a  dry-goods  merc'hant  to 
sell  less  than  twenty-eight  yards  of  calico,  or  forbidding 
a  grocer  to  sell  sugar  to  any  person  under  eighteen  years 
of  age,  or  prohibiting  the  sale  of  boots  and  shoes  within 
two  miles  of  an  agricultural  fair,  or  of  beef  and  mutton 
within  four  miles  of  a  Bchoolhouse,  or  of  cakes  and  pies 
on  election  day,  or  of  stationery  to  persons  who  are  in 
the  habit  of  using  it  to  excess  !  Everywhere  are  laws 
specially  directing  against  intoxicating  liquors,  in  which 
they  are  treated  not  "  likc^  any  other  commodity. " 


492  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

Similar  instances  might  be  adduced  from  almost  all 
civilized  nations,  showing  that  intoxicating  liquors  are 
looked  upon  as  a  class  of  merchandise  separate  and  dis- 
tinct, not  to  be  dealt  with  on  indiscriminate  rules  apply- 
ing to  all  *'  trade  "  and  **  commerce."  Precedents  for 
such  a  separation  of  special  articles  are  readily  to  be 
found.  "We-  cannot  press  the  laws  against  diseased 
meat,  infected  rags,  etc.,  because  those  things  are  not 
subjects  of  commerce.    But,  as  the  dissenting  judges  say  : 

*'  The  police  power  extends  not  only  to  ihings  intrinsically  dangerous 
to  the  public  health,,  such  as  infected  rags  or  diseased  meat,  but  to 
things  which,  when  used  in  a  lawful  manner^  are  subjects  of  property 
and  of  commerce,  and  yet  may  he  used  so  as  to  be  injurious  or  dangerous 
io  Vie  life,  the  health,  or  the  morals  of  the  people.  Gunpowder,  for  in- 
stance, is  a  svibject  of  commerce  and  of  lawful  use,  yet  because  of  its 
explosive  and  dangerous  quality,  all  admit  that  the  State  may  regu- 
late its  keeping  and  sale.  And  there  is  no  article  the  right  of  the 
State  to  control  or  prohibit  the  sale  of  which  within  its  limits  is  bet- 
ter established  than  intoxicating  liquors." 

Congress  has  made  a  special  exception,  also,  in  the 
case  of  nitro-glycerine  and  similar  explosive  substances, 
providing  that,  as  to  them, 

"  '  Any  State,  Territory,  district,  city  or  town  within  the  United 
States '  shall  not  be  prevented  by  the  language  used  *  from  regula- 
ting or  from  prohibiting  the  traffic  in  or  transportation  of  those  sub- 
stances between  persons  or  places  lying  or  being  within  their  re- 
spective territorial  limits,  or  from  prohihiling  the  introduction  thereof 
into  such  limits  for  sale,  use,  or  consumption  therein.'  " 

Juot  such  an  exception  should  bo  made  in  the  case  of 
intoxicating  liquors.  Give  us  a  good,  clean  blast  of 
dynamite,  blotting  out  its  victim  in  an  instant,  with  no 
corruption  of  character  or  harm  to  the  immortal  soul, 
rather  than  the  long,  lingering  degradation  and  debauch- 
ery aod  the  thousand  times  repeated  laurder  of  drunken- 


THE    ••ORIGINAL    PACKAGE        DECISION.  493 

ness.  Permit  us  to  prohibit  alcohol,  and  we  will  run 
some  chances,  if  need  be,  on  nitro-gljcerine.  Any  de- 
cision of  any  court,  however  high,  which  fails  to  recog- 
nize the  exceptional  character  of  intoxicating  liquors,  is 
one  sided  and  defective. 

A  despatch  to  the  New  York  Worlds  dated  at  Indian- 
apolis, August  9th,  quotes  Judge  Elliott  of  the  Indiana 
Supreme  Court  as  using  tlic  following  language  at  the 
meeting  of  the  National  Bar  Association  : 

**  In  asserting  Federal  supremacy  in  recent  decisions,  the  highest 
court  in  the  land  has  moved  through  a  new  channel.  It  has  carried 
the  doctrine  of  central  power  to  the  utmost  verge  of  safety.  I  ven- 
ture, in  the  exercise  of  a  citizen's  right,  to  say  that  in  one  notable 
instance,  at  least,  the  current  of  its  thought  has  outrun  tlio  lines 
marked  for  it  by  principle  and  precedent.  The  decision  of  the 
Court  in  the  original  package  case  is  a  strong,  and  with  profound 
deference  I  suggest,  a  dangerous  assertion  of  central  power.  IJ  the 
police  power  resides  in  the  State — and  that  it  does  has  been  time  and 
time  again  adjudged— the  only  Federaij  question  presented  "was 

"WHETBEB  INTOXICATING  LIQUOB  IS  60  FAB  DIFFERENT  FROM  OTHER  PROP- 
ERTY AS  TO  BE  THE  SUBJECT  OF  POLICE  REGULATION.  ThaT  IT  IS  THERE 
CAN,  IT  SEEMS  TO  ME,  BE  LITTLE  DOUBT. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  iust  conclusion  is  that  under  our  American 
Constitutions  there  is  neither  exclusive  central  power  nor  absolute 
local  independence.  It  is,  at  all  events,  quite  safe  to  affirm  that  it 
can  never  be  expedient  to  build  up  a  strong  central  power  at  the 
cost  of  municipal  independence.  If  there  is  a  right  so  old  and  so 
firmly  interlinked  with  free  institutions  as  to  be  known  of  all  men, 
it  is  the  right  of  local  self-government.  Of  all  the  rights  which 
found  a  place  on  American  soil  with  the  coming  of  Englishmen,  it 
has  taken  the  deepest  root  and  borne  the  richest  fruit." 

Hence  the  conference  committee  of  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  did  well  to  give  the  preference  to  the  Wilson 
bill  passed  by  the  Senate,  which  provides  : 

"  That  aU  fermented,  distilled,  or  other  in'ozicating  liquors  or  liquids 
transported  into  any  State  or  Territory  for  use,  consumption,  sale, 
or  storage  shall,  on  arrival  in  such  State  or  Territory  (or  remaining 


494  ECONOMICS    OF    PROHIBITION. 

therein),  be  subject  to  the  operation  and  effect  of  the  laws  of  such 
State  or  Territory  enacted  in  the  exercise  of  police  powers,  to  the  same 
extent  and  in  the  same  manner  as  though  such  liquors  or  liquids  had 
been  produced  in  such  State  or  Territory,  and  shall  not  be  exempt 
therefrom  by  reason  of  being  introduced  there  in  original  packages 
or  otherwise." 

The  exceptional  and  dangerous  character  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors  must  be  recognized  in  any  sound  decisions 
of  courts  or  acts  of  legislation. 

4.  This  decision  never  once  mentions  moral  character, 
or  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society,  except  in  quota- 
tions. Never  once  are  they  considered  as  matters  for 
legislation  or  judicial  decisions.  In  summing  up  what  a 
State  may  do  for  its  citizens,  it  is  said,  "  A  State  may 
provide  for  the  security  of  the  lives^  liinbs^  health  and 
comfort  of  jpersons  and  the  protection  of  jprojperty .^'^ 
That  is  all ! 

But  these  higher  matters  are  worth  the  consideration 
of  legislatures  and  courts,  and  most  of  all  things  impor- 
tant in  all  questions  of  law.  The  Supreme  Court  has 
repeatedly  so  decided,  as,  in  the  previously  quoted  words 
of  Justice  Grier,  these  *'  compel  all  laws  on  subjects  of 
secondary  importance,  which  relate  only  to  proj>erty^ 
convenience^  or  luxury^  to  recede  when  they  come  into 
conflict  or  collision."  So  recently  as  in  1887,  in  the 
Kansas  cases,  the  Supreme  Court  used  the  following  lan- 
guage : 

"  For  we  cannot  shut  out  of  view  the  fact,  within  the  knowledge 
of  all,  that  {he  public  healthy  the  public  morals  and  (he  public  safety  may 
be  endangered  by  the  general  use  <f  intoxicating  drinks  ;  nor  the  fact,  estab- 
lished  by  statistics  accessible  to  every  one,  that  Vie  idleness,  d'uiorder, 
pauperbim,  and  crime  existing  in  the  country  are,  in  some  degrte  at  least, 
traceable  to  this  evil.  If,  therefore,  a  State  deems  the  absolute  pro- 
hibition of  the  manufacture  and  sale,  within  her  limits,  of  intoxicat- 
ing  liquors  for  other  than  medical,  scientific,  and  manufacturing 


DECisiox.  495 

purposes,  to  be  necessary  to  the  pence  and  security  of  society,  the  courts 
cannot,  uiithout  usurpintj  Icgislaiire  functions,  override  the  kill  of  the  peo- 
pJe  as  thus  expressed  by  thfir  chosen  rt-pretentatives.  .  .  .  And  so,  if,  in 
the  judgment  uf  the  Legislature,  the  manafuctijre  of  intoxicating 
liquors  for  the  maker's  own  use,  as  a  beverage,  would  tend  to  crip- 
ple, if  it  did  not  defeat  the  effort  to  guard  the  community  against 
the  evils  attending  the  excessive  use  of  such  liquois,  it  is  not  for  the 
courts,  upon  their  views  as  to  xchat  is  best  and  safest  for  the  community, 
to  disregard  the  legislative  determination  of  that  question." 

Just  that  which  the  court  in  1887  said  *^  we  cannot 
shut  out  of  view,"  the  court  in  1890  does  dehberately 
*' shut  out  of  view,"  and  decides  simply  on  the  low 
ground  of  property — the  only  ground  on  which  a  de- 
cision could  have  been  rendered  in  favor  of  the  liquor 
power. 

This  is  an  inexcusable  neglect,  and  a  perversion  of  the 
eternal  fitness  of  things.  Hearts  are  more  than  dollars, 
character  more  than  trade,  virtue  more  than  revenue  — 
more  vital  to  the  prosperity  and  permanence  of  nations. 
So  the  framers  of  our  Constitution  thought  when  they 
said  : 

**  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  per- 
fect xanion,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide 
for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and 
establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Of  all  these  elements,  this  decision  xjuotes  only  one — 
**  to  form  a  more  perfect  union  " — and  interprets  that 
as  union  in  the  liquor  trade.  This  is  the  fatal  wrong  of 
this  decision — that  when  whole  communities,  towns,  vil- 
lages, counties,  and  great  States  were  eager  to  protect 
the  health,  the  morals,  and  the  homes  of  the  people,  to 
stay  the  rush  of  crime  and  the  woes  of  pauperism,  and 
to  save  the  rising  manhood  from  the  ruin  of  intemper- 


4yG  ECONOMICS  or  prohibitiox. 

ance — that  in  such  a  case  the  Supreme  Court  saw  only 
the  right  of  the  brewer  and  distiller  to  coin  money  out 
of  the  desolation,  and  establish  in  the  fairest  and  best- 
guarded  portions  of  the  land  what  the  people  have  aptly 
termed  *'  Supreme  Court  saloons  !" 

Such  a  state  of  things  cannot  endure.  A  principle  of 
wrong  introduced  into  public  administration,  whether  by 
decision  of  a  Supreme  Court,  by  act  of  a  Congress,  or  by 
fiat  of  an  emperor,  becomes  like  a  drop  of  rattlesnake's 
venom  introduced  into  the  human  body,  an  element  of 
pervading  corruption,  which,  unless  counteracted  or 
eliminated,  will  destroy  the  whole.  Lincoln  never 
secured  the  reversal  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  for  which  he  began  to  agitate.  But  he 
was  able  to  sign  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  and  to 
see  enacted  the  Constitutional  Amendments,  which  left  no 
slavery  to  which  the  Dred  Scott  decision  coiild  apply. 

The  Wilson  bill,  which  has  now  become  a  law,  may  be 
contested  before  the  courts  on  the  ground  that  Congress 
cannot  delegate  its  power.  The  claim  may  be  pressed 
J  that  all  Prohibition  statutes,  including  the  long-tried 
*'  Maine  law,"  are  *'dead  matter"  and  have  always  been 
unconstitutional.  Yet,  let  no  friend  of  the  right  hesitate 
or  falter.  Tke  proved  beneficence  of  Prohibition  can- 
not be  abolished  from  the  earth. 

The  donn'nationof  the  Liquor  Power  which  would  found 
upon  this  new  decision  cannot  stand.  The  stars  in  their 
courses  will  fight  against  it.  All  the  moral  forces  of  the* 
universe  will  war  upon  it  to  break  it  down,  even,  if  need 
should  be,  through  national  disaster  and  downfall  ;  for 
right  and  liumanity  are  greater  than  nations,  and 
mightier  factors  in  the  ordering  of  destiny.  If  our  na- 
tion  is  to  endure  and  realize  its  high  possibilities  and  its 


THE    *•  ORIGINAL   PACKAGE'      DECISION.  497 

early  promise,  then  either  the  Supreme  Court  will  come 
to  read  the  Constitution  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
humanity  and  of  God,  or  Congress  will  find  a  legal  way 
to  undo  the  evil  effects  of  this  decision,  or  the  people 
will  lay  hold  of  the  primal  sources  of  power,  and  amend 
their  fundamental   law  till,  beyond  a  question  or  a 

DOUBT,  it  shall  BE  CONSTITUTIONAL  FOE  THEM  TO  PRO- 
TECT  THEIR    HOMES    AND   THEIR    SONS. 


THE    END. 


INDEX. 


Africa,  Liquor  in,  W.  T.  Hornaday,  443-445  ;  London  Times,  445  ; 
Rum  and  Missionaries,  449  ;  Honest  Trade  Destroyed,  452. 

Agnew,  Judge  Daniel,  on  Cider,  373. 

Alcohol,  All  Animals  Have  Natural  Aversion  for,  Dr.  Felix  L.  Os- 
wald, 138  ;  in  Beer,  146,  374  ;  in  Cider,  374. 

Alcoholism,  388,  389. 

Alliance  News,  The,  The  Drunkard's  Child,  378. 

America's  Sacrifice  to  Drink,  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  105. 

Ames  Co.,  Oliver,  Loss  of  Work  through  Drink,  107. 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Liquor  Destroys  Heathen  Trade,  452. 

Argument,  Economic,  Applicable  to  all  Industries,  15. 

Armies,  European  Standing,  Cost  of,  27. 

Arrests,  for  Intoxication,  24  ;  in  Omaha,  63  ;  so-called,  of  Prostitutes, 
64  ;  in  High  License  and  Low  License  Cities,  66-67  ;  in  Pittsburgh 
and  Allegheny,  Pa.,  76;  in  Scranton,  Pa.,  77;  in  Wilkesbarre, 
Lancaster  and  Reading,  Pa.,  78  ;  by  Citizens,  Impossible,  161 ;  of 
Liquor-Dealers  in  Kansas,  214  ;  Decrease  of  in  Providence,  R.  I., 
under  Prohibition.  267,  272  ;  in  Atlanta,  277,  298  ;  see  "Crime  ;" 
see  also  "Statistical  Tables,"  "  Letters  of  Judges,"  etc.,  184-260. 

Arthur,  P.  M.,  A  Strike  against  Liquor,  338. 

Atherton.  President  J.  M.,  Letter  of.  Advocating  High  License  and 
Local  Option,  120. 

Atlanta,  Chapter.XVIL,  276  ;  Commonwealth,  High  License  Injures 
Business,  292  ;  Constitution,  Prohibition  Does  Prohibit,  279  ;  Police 
Statistics,  298  ;  Business  Men  Testify.  300. 

Avalanclie,  Memphis,  ou  New  Distilleries,  32. 

Babes.    See  "  Infants." 

Bad  Debts  a  Public  Loss,  354  ;  from  Liquor  Drinking,  312,  353.     See 

"  Statistical  Tables  ;"  Follow  "  Original  Packages,"  482. 
Bailey.  Joshua  L..  on  High  License.  74. 


600  INDEX. 

Bangor,  Liquor  Selling  in,  129. 

Banks,  Savings,  Increased  Deposits  in  Maine,  T79  ;  in  Iowa,  239, 
261  ;  Prosperous  under  Prohibition  in  R.  1 ,  209. 

Barnes,  Rev.  Albert,  Sin  of  Legalizing  Moral  Wrong,  148. 

Bar,  N.  Y.,  Tariff  the  Friend  of  the  Liquor  Traffic,  11. 

Barnum,  P.  T.,  Offer  of ,  9. 

Bayley,  Mrs.  Mary,  Prosperity  a  Cause  of  Intemperance,  85  ;  on 
Mothers  Leaving  Home  to  Earn  Wages,  90. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  D.D.,  The  Remedy  for  Intemperance  Must  be 
Universal,  123. 

Beer,  Gardens,  384  ;  for  Nursing  Mothers,  391-395. 

Bemiss,  D.,  School  Superintendent,  on  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  226. 

Best  Customers,  The,  Chapter  XX.,  339. 

Belton,  Labor  Commissioner  Frank  H.,  on  Prohibition  in  Kansas, 
226. 

Bible,  The,  Snares  for  Priceless  Men,  95  ;  Quails  and  Plague,  98  ; 
Building  Tombs  of  Prophets,  104. 

Blade,  Toledo,  on  Maine  Law,  171. 

Blaine,  Hon.  J.  G.,  Liquor  Tax  Paid  by  Consumer,  83  ;  on  Prosperity 
of  Maine,  171, 179  ;  Tendency  of  Liquor  Re  venues  to  Increase,  118. 

Boies,  Gov.,  on  Prohibition,  261. 

BonforVa  Wine  and  Spint  Circular,  Iler's  Letter  in  Behalf  of  High 
License,  121  ;  High  License  to  Defeat  Prohibition,  IOC. 

"  Boot-Leggers"  Do  not  Influence  Police,  42  ;  Do  not  Create  Demand, 
142  ;  Fight  Shy  of  Minors,  159. 

Boston  Herald,  High  License  against  Prohibition,  111. 

Boys,  Cost  of  Food,  Philadelphia  Record,  100  ;  Made  Drunk  by 
"  Original  Packages"  in  Kansas,  474  ;  in  Reform  Schools  in  Kan- 
8a.s  and  Nebraska,  480. 

Bradford,  Attorney-General,  on  Decreased  Crime  in  Leavenworth, 
220. 

Brewers,  Creating  Demand,  137,  144  ;  Starting  and  Stocking  Saloons, 
70,  146  ;  a  Political  Power,  Chicago  Times,  399. 

Brooklyn  Eagle  on  Brewers  Starting  and  Stocking  Saloons,  146. 

Brooks  Law,  The,  36  ;  Receipts  from.  Compared  with  Liquor  Ex- 
penses, 36  :  post  hoc  and  propter  hoc,  72  ;  Weakened  by  Decision 
of  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  78  ;  Political  Prohibitionist 
for  1889  on  the,  74  ;  in  Scranton,  77  ;  in  Wilkesbarre,  78  ;  in  Lan- 
caster, 78 :  in  Reading,  78  ;  Crime  under,  Philadelphia  Preti,  78. 

Burdick,  P.  A.,  "  Figuring  it  Out,"  324. 

Burlington,  Iowa,  under  Prohibition,  2^0. 


IXDEX.  501 

Census  Report  on  Coucentration  of  Business,  49. 

C/iautauq^uan,  The,  Expending  an  Income,  323. 

Cliicago  JiVeie  Prease,  Higli  License  Insurance  against  Prohibition, 
110  ;  Lever,  on  Kansas  under  Prohibition,  221  ;  Prohibition  fully 
Enforced  in  Oklahoma,  316  ;  Hews  on  High  License,  46  ;  Sunday 
Liquor  TraflSc,  17  ;  Reduction  of  Saloons  in,  Mr.  Onahan  on,  48 ; 
Standard  on  Failure  of  High  License,  65  ;  on  Law  Enforcement  by 
Citizens,  160  ;  Saloons  and  the  Cronin  Murder,  93  ;  Times,  Brew- 
ers a  Political  Power,  399  ;  IHbune,  High  License  Insurance 
against  Prohibition,  110. 

Children,  Starving  the,  Horace  Mann,  378. 

Cholera,  Quarantine  by  Local  Option,  135. 

Christian  Index,  ' '  Have  you  a  Boy  to  Spare  ?"  104. 

Clristian  Union  Fails  to  Prove  Decreased  Consumption  through  High 
License,  52. 

Church,  and  State,  400  ;  Duty  of  the,  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.D.,  418  ; 
The,  an  Economic  Institution,  418  ;  The,  James  Russell  Lowell, 
423  ;  The,  What  it  Must  Do,  427. 

Cider,  Judge  Daniel  Aguew  on,  373  ;  "  Racket,"  Brewers  Working 
the,  371  ;  Salicylic  Acid  in,  374. 

Cincinnati  Jaurnal  and  Messenger,  High  License  an  E.scape  from 
Prohibition,  110  ;  on  Kansas  under  Prohibition,  220, 

Cities  and  Immigration,  Chapter  XXVIII. ,  431. 

City  Domination  Dangerous,  432. 

Cleveland,  Wretched  Homes  of  Drinkers  in,  29  ;  Leader  on  the 
Whiskey  Tax,  46 ;  Leader,  Socialists  and  Saloons,  329  ;  Press, 
Degradation  of  Cities,  437  ;  Workhouse  Statistics  of,  22 ;  Police 
Expenses  of,  38. 

Cobden,  Richard,  Temperance,  397. 

Colquitt,  Hon.  Alfred  H.,  Capital  not  Driven  out  by  Prohibition, 
276. 

Comfort  from  Paralysis,  364. 

"  Commercialism,"  President  White  on,  9. 

Competition  Crushed  by  High  License..  55. 

Concentration  of  Business,  Census  Report  on,  49. 

Confidence,  Want  of,  Destructive  to  Trade,  412. 

Congregationalist,  The,  "  Signing  the  Farm  away,"  360. 

Congressional  Record,  Speech  of  Major  Pickler  on  Oklahoma,  316. 

Consumers,  Cost  of  Liquor  to,  18  ;  Pay  Liquor  Tax,  J.  G.  Blaine, 
83  ;  WashingUm  Sentinel,  83  ;  High  License  and  the,  Chapter  VI., 
83. 


502        •  INDEX. 

Consumption  of  Liquor  in  1889,  18  ;  Increase  of,  18  ;  not  Proved  to 
be  Diminished  by  High  License,  49-60  ;  Increased  in  Nation  while 
Number  of  Dealers  Reduced,  51  ;  Brewers'  Congress  Uncertain  of 
in  Pennsylvania,  52  ;  Christian  Union  on,  52  ;  not  Diminished  in 
Chicago,  62  ;  Diminished  under  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  184-189, 
206-209  ;  in  Iowa,  240-243,  252  ;  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  275  ;  in  At- 
lanta, Mayor  Hillyer's  Statement.  277  ;  Increased  under  License, 
Saloon-Keeper  Vaughan's  Testimony,  306 ;  in  Maine,  Speech  of 
Congressman  Dingley,  482. 

Contents,  vii. 

Cook,  Joseph,  Dangers  of  Cities,  431. 

Corn,  and  Liquor,  Comparative  Labor  Cost  in  each,  351  ;  "  What 
Will  You  Do  with  It  ?"  365. 

Cornwall,  Professor  A.  R.,  on  Saloons  in  Council  Bluffs,  151. 

Cost,  of  a  Bushel  of  Corn,  The,  363  ;  of  Feeding  Boys,  Mimico  In- 
dustrial School,  100  ;  of  Intoxicants,  Indirect,  20,  30  ;  of  Liquor 
Greater  than  National  Debt,  31  ;  of  Liquor  to  Consumers,  18,  327  ; 
of  Southern  Slave,  102  ;  of  Liquor  in  Rhode  Island,  275. 

Council  Bluffs,  Saloons  in,  Professor  Cornwall's  Testimony,  15L 

Country,  The,  Must  Help  the  City,  434. 

Crime,  and  Intemperance,  17,  21-25,  37  ;  Increased  in  Massachusetts 
by  Repeal  of  Prohibition,  60  ;  in  Pennsylvania,  75  ;  Decreased  in 
Kansas  under  Prohibition,  220,  225,  229-230 ;  in  Iowa,  234,  238 ; 
in  Atlanta,  277 ;  Henry  W.  Grady  on,  282,  288 ;  Prevented  by 
Prohibition  in  Oklahoma,  316-318  ;  in  Whitechapel,  London,  437  ; 
Absence  of  in  Vineland,  452  ;  see  "  Arrests ;"  see  also  "  Statistical 
Tables,"  "  Letters  of  Judges,"  etc.,  184-260  ;  Reduced  in  Kansas, 
480  ;  More  in  Nebraska  with  Less  Population,  480. 

Cronin  Murder,  The,  and  the  Saloons,  Chicago  Standard,  98. 

Curtis,  County  Attorney,  on  Topeka  without  Saloons,  281. 

Dakota,  Paucity  of  News  Concerning  Prohibition  in,  415 ;  Prohibi- 
tion in,  fully  Treated,  416. 

Dangers  of  Cities,  Joseph  Cook,  431 . 

Davenport,  la.,  under  Prohibition,  251. 

Davis,  Supreme  Judge,  on  Good  Effects  of  Maine  Law,  177. 

Dayton,  O.,  Young  Men  in  Saloons,  427. 

Dead  Letter  Laws,  How  they  Arise,  164. 

Deaths  from  Drink,  20,  104, 

Decreased  Consumption  through  High  License,  Christian  Union  Fails 
to  Prove,  52. 


INDEX.  503 

Delinquent  Officers  Should  be  Removed,  167,  175. 

Depreciation  of  Property  by  Saloons,  43. 

Derby,  Lord,  on  Swallowing  Land,  323. 

Devil's  Foreign  Mission,  The,  Chapter  XXIX..  441. 

Dickens,  Charles,  Self-denial  Destroyed  by  Drinking,  88  ;  Water  w. 
Gin,  380. 

Dingley,  Governor,  on  Good  Effects  of  Maine  Lrtw,  177. 

"  Dives"  the  Strongest  Temperance  Argument,  144. 

"  Doggery"  cersm  "  Gilded  Saloon,"  81. 

Dorchester,  Daniel,  D.D.,  Average  Drink  Bill  of  Each  Laboring 
Man,  321  ;  on  Results  of  Maine  Law,  179. 

Dow  Law,  Receipts  of,  Compared  with  Liquor  Expensijs,  37. 

Drinkers,  Buy  More  Liquor  in  Larger,  Finer  Saloons,  80  ;  and  Pes- 
tilence, Xew  Era,  95. 

Drinking  Cheapens  .Labor,  328 ;  Deepens  Misfortune,  331  ;  Work- 
men, in  England.  How  they  Live,  N.  Y.  Tribune,  85 ;  Mrs.  Mary 
Bayley,  85  ;  in  Fashionable  Society,  886. 

Druggists  in  United  States,  Number  of,  36. 

Drunkard's  Child,  The,  Alliance  News,  378. 

Drunkenness,  in  Edinburgh,  Rev.  Dr.  Guthrie,  90 ;  from  Cider,  376. 
See  "Arrests,"  "  Statistical  Tables,"  "  Original  Package  Decision." 

Dubuque,  la.,  under  Prohibition,  250. 

Duke  of  Alvah's  Revenue  Scheme,  95. 

Dyer,  General,  on  Good  Effects  of  Maine  Law,  177. 

Economic  Argument,  The,  Chapter  L,  9;  Application  of  to  all  In- 
dustries, 15. 

Edinburgh,  Drunkenness  and  Murder  of  Infants  in,  Rev.  Thomas 
Guthrie,  D.D.,  90. 

Edmunds,  Dr.  James,  Beer  while  Nursing,  391,  392,  393,  395. 

Educated  Ignorance  the  Most  Unconquerable,  408. 

Educational  Effect  of  Law,  154. 

Ellis,  Secretary  Edward,  Saloon  on  Frontier  always  Ahead  of  the 
Gospel,  145. 

Ely,  Professor,  Taxation  and  Co-operation,  44. 

Enforcement  of  Law,  Representative,  166;  "of  Laws  we  Have," 
168;  see  "Law." 

European  Standing  Armies,  Cost  of,  27. 

Eviction,  Henry  W.  Grady,  284. 

Executive,  Duties  of,  General  Grant.  165 ;  Intruding  on  Legislative 
Functions,  164  ;  Officers  tho  Trur  Law  and  Order  League,  163. 


504  IXDEX. 

Farmers,  Losses  from  the  Liquor  TraflSc,  367  ;  Market  Destroj'ed  by 
Liquor  Traliic,  369  ;  Sliould  Watch  City  Officers,  176  ;  The, 
Chapter  XXII.,  358. 

Farmers'  Loan  and  Trust  Co.  on  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  228. 

Finch,  John  B.,  Duty  of  Protecting  the  Homes  in  the  Cities,  129. 

Flour,  Sack  of.  Many  Industries  Involved  in,  348. 

France,  Recovery  of," after  Franco-German  War.  91. 

"  Free  Hum,"  Prohibitionists  Accused  of  Wanting,  109. 

Frost,  Walter  B.,  Prohibition  in  Rhode  Island,  269. 

Frye,  Hon.  William  P.,  on  Good  Effects  of  Maine  Law,  177. 

Gambling  Hall  Will  Develop  Passion  for  Gambling,  138. 

Garnisheeing,  Henry  W.  Grady,  287. 

Gates  of  Paradise,  The,  Chapter  XXX.,  454. 

"  Gilded  Saloon"  versus  "  Doggery,"  81. 

Gin  Palaces  Flourish  in  the  Slums,  Mr.  George  R.  Sims,  91. 

Good  Health  on  Absence  of  Crime  in  Kansas,  181. 

Gordon,  Rev.  A.  J.,  D.D.,  Duty  of  the  Church,  418. 

Grady,  Hon.  H.   W.,  The  Home-Owning  Wage-Worker,  276  ;  his 

Speech  for  Prohibition,  284. 
"  Gradual  Approaches"  Do  not  Approach,  150. 
Grain,  Table  from  The  Voice,  365. 
Grant,  General,  on  Duties  of  the  Executive,  165. 
Greenhut,  President,  his  Address  to  Whiskey  Trust,  53. 
Grosvenor,  General  Charles  H.,  on  the  Scott  Law,  97. 
Guthrie,  Rev.  Thomas,  D.D.,  on  Drunkenness  and  Murder  of  Infants 

in  Edinburgh.  90. 

Hale,  E.  E.,  Expending  an  Income,  323. 

Hargreaves,  Dr.  William,  Better  Uses  for  Liquor  Money,  456  ;  Farm- 
ers and  the  Liquor  Traffic,  367  ;  Waste  of  the  Drink  Traffic,  348. 

Harvest  of  Death,  The,  Chapter  VII.,  95. 

Harvey,  Hon.  J.  W.,  on  Prohibition  in  Iowa,  283. 

"  Have  You  a  Boy  to  Sparc  ?"  Christicm  Index,  104. 

High  License,  Does  it  Pay?  Chapter  III.,  32;  in  Omaha,  39;  as 
Monopoly,  Chapter  IV.,  46;  Chicago  News  on,  46;  Reducing 
Number  of  Saloons,  47  ;  Arithmetic,  47  ;  as  Affecting  Consumption 
of  Liquor,  50  ;  Christian  Union  on,  52  ;  Crushes  Competition,  55  ; 
Increases  Saloon  Power  in  Politics,  5Cr;  a  Tax  upon  the  Poor,  56 ; 
as  Restriction,  Chapter  V.,  60;  "  Dives,"  St.  Louis  Republic  on, 
62  ;  Omaha  Bes  on,  68 ;  Failure  of,  Chicago  Standard,  65  ;  and 


INDEX.  r>u5 

Low  License  Cities,  The  V<ntu\  GO  ;  in  St.  Paul,  The  Voler,  08  ; 
Joshua  L.  Bailey  ou,  74 ;  Pljiladelphia,  Arrests  under,  75  ;  Pitts- 
burgh, Arrests  under,  70  ;  and  the  Consumer,  Chapter  VL,  b3  ; 
not  a  Step  toward  Prohibition,  Chapter  VIIL,  106;  Insurance 
against  Prohibition,  BonforVs  Wine  and  Spirit  Circular,  106  ; 
Chicago  Freie,  Presse,  110  ;  Chicago  Tribune,  110 ;  Editor  Medill, 
110;  Journal  and  Messenger,  Cincinnati,  110  ;  Lowers  Public  Sen- 
timent, 109;  Nebraska  Clergymen  on,  112;  not  in  Prohibition 
States  before  Prohibition,  118  ;  Reduction  in  Illinois  Would  De- 
range Municipal  Finances,  118;  Distiller  J.  M.  Atherton  Favors, 
120  ;  Her  &  Co.  Favor,  121  ;  Gives  Saloons  Attraction  and  Power 
in  Omaha  Contrasted  with  Outlawed  Saloons  of  Council  Bluflfs, 
151  ;  Its  Appeal  to  the  Taxpayer  in  Maine,  174  ;  Injures  Business, 
Atlanta  Commonwealth,  292 ;  in  Nebraska  Compared  with  Pro- 
hibition in  Kansas,  479-482. 

Hillyer,  Mayor.  Prohibition  in  Atlanta,  277  ;  Unfairness  of  News- 
papers, 408. 

Holland,  Dr.  J.  G.,  America's  Sacrifice  to  Drink,  105, 

Home,  The,  Mothers  Compelled  by  Saloon  to  Leave  for  Work, 
Mrs.  Mary  Bayley,  90  ;  Chapter  XXIII. ,  378. 

Homes,  Wretched,  of  Drinking  Men,  29,  380  ;  of  Reformed  Men, 
463. 

Hornaday,  W.  T.,  Riches  of  Africa,  451  ;  Temperance  in  Africa, 
444,445. 

Horton,  Chief  Justice,  on  Kansas  under  Prohibition,  220. 

Humphrey,  Governor,  on  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  228. 

Hunt,  Mrs.  Mary  II.,  Mother  Love,  388. 

Idiocy  and  Int<impenince,  25. 

Ignorance,  Educated,  the  Most  Unconquerable,  408. 

Her  &  Co.  Favor  High  License,  60,  121. 

Illustrated  CJwistian  Weekly,  Slavery  and  Alcohol,  441. 

Import  Values  and  Liquor  Consumption,  19. 

Increase  in  Retail  over  Wholesale  Price  of  Liquor,  351  ;  Tendency  of 

Liquor  Revenues  to,  James  G.  Blaine,  118. 
Increased  Consumption  of  Liquor  and  Reduced  Saloons,  18,  51,  61  ; 

in  1889,  19. 
Indianapolis  Journal,  Prosperity  of  Iowa,  264. 
Indirect  Cost  of  Into.xicants,  20,  30  ;  Taxes  not  Appreciated,  58. 
Infants  Murdered  by  Drunkenness  in  Edinburgh,  Rev.  Dr.  Guthrie, 

90  ;  L'nborn,  Liquor  and.  Dr.  E.  G.  Figg,  390  ;  Nursed  by  Liquor- 


506  INDEX. 

Drinking  Mothers  Unhealthy,   392-393  ;    Giving  Liquor  to,  395  ; 

Milk  tor,  459. 
Ingalls,  Senator  John  J.,  on  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  181. 
Inherited  Alcoholism,  Dr.  E.  Lanceraux,  388  ;  Dr.  Norman  Kerr, 

389. 
Inquisition,  Victims  of,  Llorente,  104. 
Insanity  and  Intemperance,  25. 
Intemperance.    See  "  Arrests,"  "Crime,"  "Idiocy,"  "  Insanity,"  etc. 

Internal  Revenue,  Cleveland  Leader  on,  46  ;  Decrease  in  Maine,  178  ; 
Districts,  Maine  no  Longer  among  Them,  178  ;  from  Liquor,  Total 
in  1888  and  1889,  34  ;  no  Test  of  Consumption  of  Liquor,  235  ; 
in  Kansas  vs.  Nebraska,  479 ;  in  Maine,  482  ;  Law,  Payment  of 
Tax  Does  Not  Give  Right  to  Sell,  489. 

Intoxication,  Arrests  for,  24. 

Invention,  Valuable,  Sold  for  a  Glass  of  Beer,  88. 

Iowa,  State  Register  on  Taxes,  39  ;  License  Fee  in  before  Prohibition, 
118;  Saloons  in  Council  Bluffs,  151  ;  Chapter  XV.,  232;  District 
Judges  on  Prohibition,  252-260  ;  Prosecuting  Attorneys  on  Prohi- 
bition, 240-249  ;  Getting  Liquor  in,  262  ;  under  Prohibition,  Presi- 
dent B.  F.  Wright  on,  232  ;  History  of  Legislation,  332  ;  Governor 
Larrsibee  on,  233  ;  Hon.  G.  W.  Ruddickon,  233  ;  Hon.  J.  W.  Har- 
vey on,  233  ;  Hon.  W.  P.  Wolf  on.  234 ;  Effects  in  Burlington, 
250  ;  in  Dubuque,  250  ;  in  Davenport,  251  ;  Prosperity  of,  Indian- 
apolis Journal,  264  ;  State  Debt  Paid,  265  ;  See  also  476. 

Jails  Empty,  in  Kansas,  230  ;  in  Iowa,  233,  237,  251. 
Johnson,   Rev.  James,   Liquor  for  the  Heathen,  443  ;  Rum  Worse 
than  Slavery,  453  ;  Rev.  Wayland,  on  Ix)cal  Option  in  (Georgia,  131. 
Judgment  Injured  by  Drinking,  362. 

Kansas,  License  Fee  in  before  Prohibition,  119  ;  Douglas  and  Lin- 
coln on  Slavery  in,  126  ;  Clerk  Spotted  for  One  Drink,  152  ;  no 
Sunday  Selling  in,  158  ;  Grand  Place  to  Bring  up  Boys,  159  \  Ef- 
fectiveness of  Proliibition,  181  ;  Good  Health  on  Absence  of  Crime 
in,  181  ;  Murray  Law,  170,  181  ;  Prohibitory  Amendment  Adopted 
in  1880,  181  ;  Senator  Ingalls  on  Prohibition  in,  181  ;  Success  of 
Prohibition  in,  182  ;  Probate  Judges  on  Prohibition  in,  183-203  ; 
County  Treasurers  on  Prohibition  in,  203-213  ;  Governor  Martin 
on  Success  of  Prohibition  in,  214  ;  L.  A.  Maynard  in  "  Truth  about 
Kansas,"  217  ;  Liquor  Drinkers  in  Disrepute,  219  ;  under  Prohibi- 
tion, Chief-Justice  Horton  on.  220  :  Chicago  lA'ter  on,  221  ;  State 


INDEX.  507 

ment  of  Prominent  Citizens,  153,  223  ;  Decrease  of  Crime  ut  Fort 
Scott,  225 ;  Steel  Cell  Business  Injured  by,  225  ;  Barrel  Manufac- 
turer Complaining,  225  ;  Tradesmen  Receive  Prompter  Pay,  225  ; 
E.  B.  Purcell  on,  225  ;  Labor  Commissioner  Betton  on,  226 ; 
School  Superintendent  Bemiss  on,  226 ;  Various  Opinions  on, 
227  ;  Governor  Humphrey  on.  228  ;  Farmei*s'  Loan  and  Trust  Co. 
on,  228  ;  Western  Baptist  on,  230  ;  Better  Class  of  Immigrants 
Going  to,  438  ;  Effects  of  "  Original  Packages"  in,  474,  475,  478  ; 
Great  Convention  at  Topeka,  479  ;  New  Official  Statistics  of  Pro- 
hibition, 479-481  ;  Rev.  Dr.  J.  L.  Hurlbut  on,  481  ;  Decision  of 
Supreme  Court  for  Prohibition  in  1887,  494. 

Keach,  Calvin  E.,  Better  Uses  for  Liquor  Money,  457. 

Keosauqua  Bepublican,  Governor  Larrabce's  Letter  on  Prohibition  in 

Iowa,  233. 
Kerr,  Dr.  Norman,  Inherited  Alcoholism,  389. 

Labor,  Loss  of  through  Drink,  21  ;  Employed  by  Liquor  Traffic 
Less  than  in  any  Other  Business,  351. 

Laboring  Men,  Average  Drink  Bill  of  Each,  Daniel  Dorchester, 
D.D.,  321  ;  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  321  ;  Chapter  XIX.,  320. 

Lager  Beer,  Increased  Per  Cent,  of  Alcohol  in,  "  Nasby,"  146. 

Lamb,  Charles,  Intemperance  the  Death  of  Determination,  87. 

Lancaster,  Brooks  Law  in,  78. 

Lanceraux,  Dr.  E.,  Inherited  Alcoholism,  388. 

Larrabee,  Governor,  on  Iowa  under  Prohibition,  233. 

Law,  as  an  Educator,  154 ;  Protecting  Lands  and  Crops  from 
Hunters,  155  ;  Absence  of,  a  Tacit  Sanction,  156  ;  as  Protection  to 
the  Young  and  Unwary,  Hon.  Robert  C.  Pitman,  156  ;  Beneficial, 
Creates  Public  Sentiment  for  Itself,  156. 

Law  Enforcement,   Father  Taylor  on,    160 ;    by  Citizens,  Chicago 

Standard,  160  ;    Impracticability  of,  161  ;   Incompatible 

with.  Executive  Officers.  163  ;  Opposed  to  Republican  Prin- 
ciple, 165  ;  Helped  by  Strengthening  Laws,  169  ;  and  Counter- 
feiting, 169  ;  Imprisonment  Helps  in,  175  ;  General  Grant  on,  165. 

Lawyer  Getting  Liquor  in  Iowa,  262  ;  Reading  Habits  of  a,  409. 

Leader,  Cleveland,  Women  who  Drink,  383. 

Leaders  of  Opinion  Should  Secure  the  Facts,  415. 

Leavenworth  Prosperous  under  Prohibition,  219. 

Legalization  Increa.'^s  Sale.  143. 

Lending  Umlwlla,  The,  108. 


508  IXDEX. 

Liberty  Dependent  upon  Morals,  Daniel  Webster,  397. 

License  and  Taxation  in  Omaha,  39  ;  Cardinal  Manning  on,  148  ; 
Essential  Wrong  of.  Rev.  Albert  Barnes,  148;  High,  see  "High 
License." 

Limited  Labor  Required  in  Making  or  Selling  Liquor,  351. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  falsely  Represented  as  Opposing  Prohibition, 
291 ;  Moral  Wrong  of  Slavery,  403. 

Liquor,  Literature,  14  ;  Crimes,  Judge  White  on,  17  ;  and  Import 
Values,  19  ;  and  Tariff,  19  ;  and  Loss  of  Labor,  21  ;  and  Pauper- 
ism, 21 :  Cleveland  Workhouse,  22  ;  and  Crime,  23 ;  Sickness 
Caused  by,  26  ;  Makers,  Lost  Labor  of,  27  ;  Dealers  Non  pro- 
ducers, 27  ;  Indirect  Cost  of,  20,  30  ;  Bill  Compared  with  National 
Debt,  31 ;  Dealers  in  United  States,  36  ;  Receipts  and  Expenses 
from,  in  Ohio,  37  ;  More  Bought  in  Finer  Saloons,  80  ;  Tax, 
Paid  by  Consumer,  J.  G.  Blaine,  83  ;  Wmhington  Sentinel,  83  ; 
Demand  for  Increased  Dose  of,  137  ;  in  Case  of  Cincinnati  Mer- 
chant, 140  ;  Secret  Sale  of,  262  ;  How  Lawyer  Got  it  in  Iowa,  262  ; 
Enslaves  Labor,  R.  F.  Trevellick,  320  ;  and  Corn,  Comparative 
Labor  Cost  in  Each,  351  ;  Traffic  Employs  Less  Labor  than  Other 
Business,  351  ;  Traffic  Makes  more  Profit  over  Cost  of  Produc- 
tion than  any  Other  Business,  351  ;  Destroys  Trade,  443,  452. 

Liquor  Money,  Better  Uses  for,  Dr.  William  Hargreaves,  456  ;  Cal- 
vin E.  Keach,  457. 

Llorente,  Victims  of  Inquisition,  104. 

Local  Option  Claimed  as  Peculiarly  American,  123 ;  by  Towns, 
Weakness  of,  158  ;  in  Ohio,  124  ;  Means  Option  to  Permit  as  well 
as  Option  to  Prohibit,  124  ;  Contrary  to  the  American  Idea,  125  ; 
Simply  the  Douglas  Doctrine  of  "  Popular  Sovereignty,"  126  ; 
in  Georgia,  Number  of  Inebriates  and  Ruined  Homes  Increasing, 
127  ;  is  Inadequate  Protection,  127  ;  Town,  the  Mother  in,  127  ; 
Surrenders  the  Centers  of  Population,  128  ;  Constantly  in  Politics, 
129;  John  B.  Finch  on,  129  ;  Professor  H.  A.  Scomp  on,  130; 
Disintegrates  the  Temperance  Forces,  131  ;  Permits  the  Liquor 
Power  to  Remain  Organized.  131  ;  Why  not  for  the  Tariff  ?  134  ; 
Applied  to  Cholera,  135  ;  Successful  Instance  of,  355. 

Locke,  D.  R.     See  "  Nasby." 

London,  Dock  Laborers'  Strike  Successful  Because  under  Temper- 
ance Influence,  336  ;  Economist,  Saloons  Cut  off  Market  for 
Goods,  339;  Tid  BitJt,  a  Costly  "Beer,"  88;  Tinier,  Prohibition 
Mean.s  Morality  and  Wealth,  454  ;  Tinuft,  Tcm|wrance  in  .\frir;i. 
445. 


INDEX.  609 

Long,  Hon.  John  D.,  Whiskey  is  Dynamite.  431. 

Loss  of   Labor  through   Drink,   21  ;    of    Working  Power  through 

Drink,  Oliver  Ames  Co.,  107. 
Lost  Labor  of  Liquor  Makers  and  Dealers,  27. 
Lottery  Will  Develop  Demand  for  Itself,  138. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  A  Parable,  428. 

Macon  Telegraph  (Anti-Prohibition)  favored  Local  Option  in  Georgia, 
132. 

Maine,  License  Fee  in,  before  Prohibition,  118  ;  Republican  State 
Convention  of  1882, 177  ;  Increase  of  Savings  Banks  Deposits,  179  ; 
Increase  of  Valuations,  179 ;  Dr.  Dorchester  on  Prohibition  in, 
179  ;  Vote  on  Prohibitory  Amendment,  1884,  178  :  Decrease  in 
Internal  Revenue  since  1863, 178  ;  J.  G.  Blaine  on  Prosperity  of, 
171,  179;  Increase  of  Population,  180. 

Maine  Law,  Toledo  BUtde  on,  171  ;  D.  R.  Locke  ("  Nasby")  on, 
171  ;  in  Lewiston,  N.  Y.  World  on,  173 ;  and  Politics,  173 ; 
Liquor  League  Desires  Repeal  of,  173  ;  Governor  Dingley  on 
Good  Effects  of,  177  ;  Governor  Ptrham  on  Good  Effects  of,  177  ; 
Hon.  William  P.  Frye  on  Good  Effects  of,  177  ;  Supreme  Judge 
Davis  on  Good  Effects  of,  177  ;  General  Dyer  on  Good  Effects  of, 
177  ;  Latest  stiitistics  of,  482. 

Man,  Cash  Value  of  a,  99.  102. 

^lanhood,  Snares  for,  Bible,  95. 

Mann,  Horace,  on  Starving  the  Children,  378. 

Manning,  Cardinal,  on  Prevention  as  a  Duty,  148. 

Martin.  Ex-Governor,  on  Success  of  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  214  ; 
Repeal  not  Proposed,  436. 

Maynard,  L.  A.,  "  The  Truth  about  Kansas,"  217,  225. 

Medill,  Editor,  High  License  Insurance  against  Prohibition,  110. 

Metcalf,  Hon.  Henry  B.,  Repeal  of  Prohibition  in  R.  I.,  273. 

Michigan,  License  Fee  in  before  Prohibition,  118. 

Milk  for  Children  ts.  Liquor  for  Men.  459. 

Minister  Influenced  by  High  License  Arguments,  108. 

Minors  Safe  in  Kansas,  159. 

Money  u.sed  Repeatedly  in  Trade,  350. 

Monopoly,  Brewers',  St.  Louis  Jiepublic,  70  ;  High  License  as.  Chap- 
ter IV.,  46  :  of  Sale,  Effect  on  Purchasers,  80. 

Mother  Love.  Mrs.  :Mary  H.  Hunt,  388. 

Mothers,  in  Local  Option  Towns,  127  ;  Using  Intoxicants,  380-391  ; 
Liquor  Injurious  lo.  :]95. 


510  INDEX. 

Napoleon,  "  Send  me  no  more  Boys,"  91. 

"  Nasby"  (D.  R.  Locke),  Brewers  Creating  a  Demand  for  Beer,  144  ; 
on  Increased  Per  Cent,  of  Alcohol  in  Lager  Beer,  146  ;  on  Thirst- 
Provoking  Contrivances  in  Saloons,  146  ;  on  Maine  Law,  171  ; 
Political  Power  of  the  Saloon,  405. 

National  Baptist  on  Arrests,  25. 

National  Labor  Tribune,  Ambition  Destroyed  by  Drink,  86. 

National  Temperance  Advocate,  on  Increase  of  Pauperism  in  Great 
Britain,  92. 

Nebraska  Clergymen  on  High  License,  112. 

New  Era,  Drinkers  and  Pestilence,  95  ;  Character  of  Immigration,  438. 

New  Lands,  The,  Chapter  XVIII.,  315. 

Newport  Daily  News,  Drunkenness  Increjising,  275 ;  Enterpiise, 
Economic  Value  of  License  and  Rum,  275. 

Newsjmpers,  General,  Unfairness  of,  Mayor  Hillyer,  408 ;  In 
Penn.sylvania  Amendment  Contest,  II.  W.  Palmer,  413  ;  General, 
Disqualify  their  Readers  to  Judge  Concerning  Temperance,  409  ; 
Partisan,  Educating  into  Contempt  of  Character  and  Disregard 
of  Truth,  410  ;  Readers  Should  Test  their  Assertions,  414. 

Nursery,  The,  Chapter  XXIV.,  388. 

Nursing  Mothers,  Beer  for,  391,  392,  393,  395. 

Officers,  Delinquent,  Should  be  Removed,  167,  175. 

Ohio  Receipts  and  Expenses  from  Liquor,  37. 

Oklahoma  Peaceful  under  Prohibition,  Major  J.  A.  Pickler,  316; 
Prohibition  fully  Enforced,  Chicago  Lever,  316, 

Omaha  World,  on  Ta.xation,  39  ;  Bee  on  High  License,  "  Dives,"  63  ; 
License  and  Taxation,  39  ;  Police  Reports,  63 ;  License  of  Pros- 
titution, 64  ;  Bee  on  **  Original  Packages"  in  Iowa,  477. 

Onahan,  Mr.,  on  Reduction  of  Saloons  in  Chicago,  48. 

"  One  Liver  and  Forty  Roasts,"  Bishop  J.  H.  Vincent,  341. 

"  One  Man's  Drink  Bill,"  P.  A.  Burdick,  324. 

"Original  Package"  Decision,  The,  Chapter  XXXI.,  467;  A  Re- 
versal of  Decision  in  New  Hampshire  Case,  471-473;  Justice 
Qrier's  Opinion.  471  :  Chief-Justice  Taney's  Opinion,  472  ;  Effects 
of  Decision,  473-479  ;  Size  of  Packages,  474 ;  Drinking  on  Prem- 
ises, 474 ;  Sales  to  Minors,  474 ;  Boys  Drunk  in  Kansas,  474  ; 
Repros<«ntative  Perkins  on  Effects  in  Kansas,  475  ;  Kansa.««  City's 
Rushing  Business  in  Beer  and  Boxes,  475,  476  ;  Representative 
Henderson  on  Results  in  Iowa,  476  ;  Christian  Voir/:  on  Results  in 


INDKX.  611 

Iowa,  476  ;  Omaha  Bee  on  Liquor  Sales  in  Topeka  "  For  the  First 
Time  in  FInx*  Years,"  477;  Topeka  Capital  on  "Topeka  Drunk 
vs.  Topeka  Sober,"  478;  Great  Convention  in  Tf)peka,  479; 
Official  Statistics  Comparing  Kansas  Prohibition  with  Nebraska 
High  License,  479-481  ;  Rev.  Dr.  Hurlbut  on  Busineas  Failures 
in  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  481  ;  Representative  Diugley  on  Pro- 
liibitory  Law  in  Maine,  482  ;  U.  S.  District-Attorney  J.  W.  Ady 
on  Prohibitory  Laws  "Dead  Matter"  Now,  483;  Destroys  Police 
Power  of  States,  484  ;  Claims  Right  to  Force  a  Sale,  487  ;  Senator 
Edmunds  on,  487  ;  Treats  Liquor  "  Like  Any  Other  Commodity," 
490  ;  Striking  Parallel  with  Dred  Scott  Decision,  490  ;  Judge 
Elliott,  at  National  Bar  Association,  on,  493 ;  Wilson  Law,  493  ; 
Morality  and  Public  Order  Not  Considered,  494  ;  Compared  with 
Decision  in  Kansas  Case,  494  ;  Liquor  Domination  Cannot  Stand, 
495-496. 
Oswald,  Dr.  Felix  L.,  on  Natural  Aversion  of  Animals  for  Alcohol, 
138. 

Paid  Labor  of  Wives  and  Mothers  Injures  Home,  Mrs.  .Mary  Bayley, 
90. 

Palmer,  General  Henry  W.,  Newspap)er  Deception,  413. 

Pauperism  and  Drink.  21  ;  in  London,  92  ;  in  Kansas,  230  ;  see 
"  SUitistical  Tables." 

Pawtucket  Gazette  and  Chronicle,  Non-Enforcement  of  High  License 
Restrictions,  274  ;  Record,  Saloons  Prosperous  under  License,  274. 

Paying  the  Piper,  Chapter  II.,  17. 

Perham,  Governor,  on  Good  Effects  of  Maine  Law,  177. 

Philadelphia,  Arrests  under  High  License,  75  ;  Pre»8,  on  Crime  under 
the  Brooks  Law,  78  ;  Record,  Cost  of  a  Boy's  Foo<l,  100. 

Pickler,  Major  J.  A.,  Oklahoma  Peaceful  under  Prohibition,  316. 

Piper,  Paying  the.  Chapter  II.,  17  ;  Will  Rai.se  iiis  Price.  94. 

Pitman,  Judge  Robert  C.,  The  State  the  Unit  of  Sovereignty,  123  ; 
on  Law  as  Protection  to  the  Yoimg  and  Unwarj',  156. 

Pittsburgh,  Arrests  under  High  License,  76  ;  "  Speak-easies  "  in,  A. 
Wishart,  79. 

Poisoners-General,  John  Wesley  on,  95.  , 

Police  Efficiency  Reduced  by  Saloons,  41  ;  Statistics,  Atlanta,  298  ; 
Expenses  in  Cleveland,  38  ;  Power,  Belongs  to  States.  471  ;  De- 
stroyed by  "  Original  Package"  Decision.  484  ;  Never  Conceded 
to  the  United  States,  486. 

Political  Power,  of  the  Brewers,  Cliicago  Times,  399  ;  of  the  Saloon, 


51-1  IXDEX. 

D.  R.  Locke,  405  ;  of  Liquor  Traffic  Increased  by  High  License, 
55. 

Politics,  Chapter  XXV.,  397. 

Polygamy  and  Law,  401. 

Poor,  High  License  a  Tax  upon  the,  56. 

Powder] y,  T.  V.,  Drink  the  Laborer's  Worst  Enemy,  33G  ;  Shut  out 
the  Liquor- Dealer,  337  ;  Drink  Enslaves  the  Workingman,  338. 

Preface,  iii. 

Press,  The,  Chapter  XXVL,  408. 

Prohibition,  Effect  on  Wool,  Compared  with  the  Tariff,  12 ;  Why 
Liquor-Dealers  Want  it  Repealed,  142 ;  the  Best  Restriction,  150  ; 
in  Leavenworth,  219;  Iowa  Judges  on,, 256;  Governor  Larrabee 
on,  260 ;  Governor  Boies  on,  261 ;  in  Rhode  Island,  Political  Pro- 
hibitionist for  1888,  267 ;  Walter  B.  Frost,  269  ;  a  Good  Law, 
N.  Y.  Tribune,  272  ;  Repeal  of  in  Rhode  Island,  Henty  B.  Metcalf, 
273 ;  in  Atlanta,  Mayor  Hillyer,  277 ;  Improves  Schools,  Atlanta 
Constitution,  281  ;  Business,  Atlanta  Comtitution ,  279  ;  Does  Pnv 
hibit,  279  ;  Decreases  Crime,  282  ;  Gives  Peace  and  Order  in  Okla- 
homa, Major  J.  A.  Pickler,  316  ;  fully  Enforced  in  Oklahoma, 
Chicago  Lever,  316  ;  Booms  Business,  355  ;  Press  Reliable,  414  ; 
in  Dakota,  Paucity  of  News  Concerning,  415  ;  News  fully  Given, 
416 ;  Will  Purify  Immigration,  438 ;  in  Viueland,  Constable 
Curtis,  454. 

Prohibitionists  Forced  to  Read  all  Sides,  and  Likely  to  be  Best  In- 
formed, 411. 

Property  Depreciated  by  Saloons,  43. 

Public,  Morals  to  be  Preserved,  403;  Sentiment  Lowered  by  High 
License,  109. 

Purcell,  E.  B.,  on  Prohibition  in  Kansas,  225. 

Reading,  Brooks  Law  in,  78  ;  Police  Statistics,  78. 

Reading  of  Anti-Prohibition    Press  not  Sufficient,  408;    of  Books 

and  Papers,  Intiuence  on  Opinion  and  Life.  409. 
Reduction  of  Saloons  and  Increased  Consumption  of  Liquor,  51,  61. 
Regulation  as  Applied  to  Secession,  154. 
Remedy  for  Intemperance  Must  be  Universal,  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher, 

123. 
Repeal  of  Prohibition  in  Rhode  Island,  H.  B.  Metcalf,  278. 
Republican  Convention  of  1882  (Maine)  on  Maine  Law,  177. 
Restriction,  High  License  as.  60;  Tlie  True,  ChapU-r  XL,  148;  as 

Hard  to  Enforce  as  Prohibition,  149  ;  Bitterly  Contested  by  Liquor- 


IXDKX.  513 

Dealers,  149 ;  Effectual,  Heduces  Liquor-Dealers'  Income,  149 ; 
Parallel  Propositions  Regarding,  149;  Prohibition  the  Best,  150. 

Revenues,  from  License,  Total,  Mr.  £.  J.  Wheeler,  19  ;  State,  36  ; 
Internal,  from  Liquor,  34  ;  Scheme  of  Duke  of  Alvah,  95, 

Rhode  Island,  Chapter  XVI.,  266;  Prohibition  in.  Political  Prohibi- 
tionist for  1888,  267  ;  Prohibition  in,  Walter  B.  Frost,  269 ;  Pros- 
perity of,  under  Prohibition,  269. 

Ruddick,  Hon.  G.  W.,  on  Prohibition  in  Iowa,  233. 

Hum  on  the  Congo.  Rev.  Dr.  Sims,  448  ;  H.  W.  Stanley,  449  ;  Worse 
than  ^laverj',  Sir  Richard  Burton,  452  ;  Rev.  James  Johnson,  453. 

St.  Louis  liepablic  on  Brewers'  Monopoly,  70 ;  on  High  License 
"Dives,"  62. 

St.  Paul,  High  License  in,  IJie  Voice,  68;  Pioneer  Preta,  Average 
Drink  Bill  of  each  Laboring  ^lan,  321. 

Saloons,  Number  and  Income  in  New  York  City,  13  ;  Total  Cost  of 
in  New  York  City,  13  ;  Palatial,  Cost  of,  29  ;  Reduce  Police  Effi- 
ciency, 41  ;  Depreciate  Property,  43 ;  Revenue  for  Sidewalks,  44  ; 
Political  Power  Increased  by  High  License,  55  ;  Increased  Sales  in 
Finer,  80  ;  and  the  Cronin  Murder,  Chicago  SUmdard,  93  ;  once 
Started,  Make  their  Own  Trade.  140  ;  Splendid,  the  Most  Objec- 
tionable, 144  ;  always  in  Advance  of  Civilization  on  Frontier,  145  ; 
Cut  off  Market  for  Goods,  339;  Using  Stolen  Light,  380;  of 
Dayton,  O.,  Young  Men  in.  427 ;  Great  Focus  of  Destruction  in 
Cities,  435. 

Scomp,  Professor  H.  A.,  on  Local  Option  in  Georgia,  130,  132. 

Scott  Law,  General  Charles  H.  Grosvenor  on,  97. 

Scranton.  Brooks  Law  in,  77. 

Secret  Liquor  Selling,  262. 

Self-denial  Destroyed  by  Drinking,  88. 

Selfishness  of  Drinking,  332. 

Sickness  Caused  by  Liquor,  26. 

Sidewalks  and  Saloons,  44. 

Sims,  George  R.,  on  "How  the  Pf>or  Live,"  91  ;  The  Depth  of 
the  Wound,  345  ;  Rev.  Dr.,  Rum  on  the  Congo,  448. 

Slavery,  Moral  Wrong  of.  Abraham  Lincoln,  403. 

Slums,  Gin  Palaces  Flourish  in,  Mr.  George  R.  Sims.  91. 

Socialists  and  Saloons,  Cleveland  Leader,  329. 

Society,  Rude  Pressure  to  Drink  in,  386. 

South,  Recovery  of  after  Civil  War,  91. 

"  Spcak-Ea-sies"  in  Pittsburgh,  78,  79. 


514-  IXDEX. 

Stanley,  H.  W.,  Rum  on  the  Congo,  449. 

Starting  a  Saloon,  140. 

State,  The,  the  Unit  of  Sovereignty,  Judge  Robert  C.  Pitman,  123. 

Statistical  Tables,  XVII, 

Sunday,  Liquor  Traffic,  Chicago  News,  17  ;  Selling,  Incident  in  Drug 
Store,  154  ;  Closing  in  Duluth,  157  ;  No  Trouble  about  under  Pro- 
hibition, 157  ;  Selling,  None  in  Kansas,  158. 

Supply  of  Liquor  Creates  Demand,  Chapter  X.,  137. 

Supreme  Court  Decisions  in  New  Hampshire  Case  of  1847,  470  ;  in 
"  Original  Package"  Case  of  1890,  473  ;  in  Kansas  Case  of  1887,494. 

"  Swallowing  Land,"  Lord  Derby,  323. 

Tariff,  Main  Issue  in  1888,  11  ;  the  Friend  of  tlie  Liquor  Traffic, 
N.  Y.  Bar,  11  ;  Effect  on  Wool  Compared  with  Effect  of  Prohi- 
bition, 12  ;  Import  Values  Compared  with  Liquor  Consumption, 
19  ;  Local  Option  for,  134. 

Taxation,  and  Co-operation,  Professor  Ely,  44 ;  and  License  in 
Omaha,  39. 

Temperance  Instruction  in  Schools  Needful,  416  ;  Literature,  416. 

Thirst-provoking  Contrivances  in  Saloons,  '*  Njisby,"  146. 

Thomas,  J.  L  ,  The  Labor  Problem  the  People's  Problem,  320. 

Tisdel,  W.  P.,  Liquor  for  the  Heathen,  443. 

Toledo  Blade,  Reply  to  Letter  of  Indignant  Brewer,  137  ;  on  Maine 
Law,  171. 

Topeka  without  Saloons,  County  Attorney  Curtis  on,  231  ;  Drunk 
T8.  Topeka  Sober,  478. 

Tradesman,  The,  Chapter  XXL.  348. 

Tradesmen  needed,  848  ;  Prospering  under  Prohibition,  225,  253-257. 

Trevellick,  R.  F.,  Liquor  Enslaves  Labor,  320. 

Tnbune,  N.  Y.,  How  Drinking  Workmen  Live,  85. 

"  Truth  about  Kansas,  The,"  L.  A.  Maynard,  225. 

Unborn  Infants,  Liquor  and.  Dr.  E.  G.  Figg,  390. 

Value,  Cash,  of  a  Man,  99,  102. 

Vincent,  Bishop  J.  H.,  "One  Liver  and  Forty  Roasts," 841. 

Voice,  TA^  Table  of  High  License  and  Low  License  Cities,  66  ;  High 
License  in  St.  Paul,  68 ;  Probate  Judges  on  Success  of  Prohibition  in 
Kansas,  183  ;  County  Treasurers  on  Success  of  Prohibition  in  Kan- 
sas. 208 ;  Leavenworth  under  Prohibition,  219  ;  Statement  of  One 
Hundred  and  Fifty-three  Prominent  Citizens  of  Kansas,  228  ;  Iowa 
Judges  on  Prohibition,  287,  256 ;  Iowa  Prosecuting  Attorneys'  Re- 
plies, 289,  .24^^--  Pwwperity  of  Iowa.  265  :  Atlnnln'<;  Business  Men 


INDEX.  515 

Testify,    ilOO,    313;     Table    Coucerning    Grain,    3G5 ;     "Original 
Ptickage"  Saloons  in  Kansas,  474. 

Wage-worker,  Home-owning,  Hon.  H.  W.  Grady,  270. 
Washington  Sentinel,  Liquor  Tax  Paid  by  the  Consumer,  83. 
Waste  of  the  Drink  Traffic,  William  Hargreaves,  M.D.,  348. 
Wealth-producing  Qualities,  their  Destruction,  84,  92. 
Webster,  Daniel,  Liberty  Dependent  upon  Morals,  397  ;  Dr.,  United 

States  Consul,  How  Drinking  Workmen  Live,  85. 
Wesley,  John,  on  Poisoners- General,  95. 
Western  Baptist  on  Prohibition  in  Topeka,  230. 
"  What  Will  you  do  with  your  Corn  ?"  365. 
Wheeler,  E.  J.,  on  Liquor  Rovenues,  19. 
Whiskey,  Tax,  Cleveland  Leader  on,  46  ;  Trust  Policy,  President 

Greenhut's  Address,  53  ;  Reducing  Number  of  Establishments,  53. 
White.  President,  "  Commercialism,"  9  ;  Judge,  on  Liquor  Crimes,  17. 
Wife,  Leaving  Home  to  Earn  Wages,  90  ;  of  Drunkard,  378-382  ; 

Providing  Good    Food,   381  ;    Making  Home    Happy,   464-465 ; 

Beating,  None  in  Kansas,  208  ;  Incident  at  Sea.  383. 
Wilkesbarre,  Brooks  Law  in,  78. 
Will-Power  Destroyed  by  Drinking,  National  Labor   Tribune,  86  ; 

Charles  Lamb,  87. 
Wilson  bill  on  "  Original  Packages,"  493. 
Wine  Sauce.  385. 

Wines,  Fred  H.,  on  Pauperism  and  Crime,  21,  23. 
Wishart,  A.,  "  Speak-Easies"  in  Pittsburgh,  79. 
Wolf,  Hon.  W.  P..  on  Prohibition  in  Iowa,  234. 
Women,  in  London  Slums,  Mr.  George  R.  Sims,  91  ;  who  Drink, 

Cleveland  Leader,  383. 
Women's  Starvation  Wages,  335. 
Wool  as  Affected  by  Tariff  or  Prohibition,  12  ;  Increased  Market 

for,  371. 
Workhouse,  Cleveland,  Intemperance  of  Inmates,  22. 
Workingmen,  Injured  by  Drink,  Powderly,  338  ;  Trevellick,  320  ; 

the  Best  Customers,  340.     See  "  Laboring  Men." 
Wright,  President  B.  F.,  on  Iowa  under  Prohibition.  232. 

Yellowstone  Kit  in  Atlanta,  290. 

Young  Men  and  Legalized  Saloons  in  Cities,  128 ;  not  Tempted  by 
Outlawed  Saloons,  143 ;  not  Tempted  by  Council  Bluffs  Rookeries, 
151  •  Reformed  by  Kansas  Prohibition,  152 ;  Visiting  Dayton 
salooos,427.  ^"^^^^ 


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